


The case of the demon’s den.

by IoccasionallyWriteStories



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Buttons is a girlsie, F/F, Gen, Haunted House, HoH Specs, Horror Elements, I’m gonna try to finish this, M/M, Magical Elements, Medda adopted Jack, Nonbinary JoJo, The violence is just the stuff that comes with ghosts, This isn’t a one shot for once, and Race, and Romeo, and Smalls, nothing too bad y'all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-08-21 18:04:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 61,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16581410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IoccasionallyWriteStories/pseuds/IoccasionallyWriteStories
Summary: "What if we used the demon's den?" Albert speaks up and all of them stare at him in disbelief. JoJo gets up from their seat, walks over to Albert and smacks him on the forehead with their rosary (their moms had given it to them and JoJo always carried it with them). "Albert, that's the most stupid fucking idea ever. Someone actually died in that house."Or, the Newsies are in search for a location for their weekly movie night and a supposedly haunted house is one of the options.





	1. Nonbelievers shall experience the mighty cross of JoJo. Or their holy water gun.

As soon as Medda tries to enter her living room, she knows that something is up. Jack, her oldest, tries to hide something behind him by standing in the doorway and blocking her view. That boy should know better by now. From behind him, she hears someone, she's 99% sure that it's Finch, swear and knowing that the boy usually has a slingshot with him, that's not a good sign. Her second kid, Race, is also uncharacteristically quiet and by now Medda is sure that they fucked up more than usual. Sighing deeply, she gestures at Jack to move out of her way. "Let me see what you kids have done now."

"Really boys?" Medda asks as she looks at the absolute train wreck that is supposed to be her living room. She isn't sure how an innocent movie night dissolved into...this. With her hands on her hips, she gives the room a once over and feels a headache coming up. About twenty kids give her mixtures of guilty and rueful looks and Specs steps forward, probably ready to apologize but she waves him off. 

"No. I don't even want to hear it. This time, you all have gone too far. That" ,she points at a mountain of glass, "was a closet. I suppose the ceramics inside of it haven't survived either?" None of them look her in the eyes, but she sees Sniper and Finch exchange meaningful looks and she knows enough. "All of you, clean up this mess. And please find another place for your weekly movie night, because this was the last straw." 

"Oh my god", Romeo chokes out and he sounds like he might start crying any minute. "We've disappointed her. Like, actually disappointed her." While making soothing noises, Specs rubs his back. "It's gonna be a-ok Romeo. She'll turn around eventually, like my mom does!" Romeo sniffles. "Specs, you don't have a mom." Specs shrugs in return. "Damn man, I was just trying to be supportive. No need to come for me like that." 

Race rolls his eyes at the interaction and claps his hands loudly. "Okay, people! Let's clean this mess up and go to sleep." They split up the work and go to sleep afterwards.

-

The following Monday, they are all crammed at one table in the cafeteria, talking and screeching through each other until Blink climbs unto the table and screams for a solid minute with his arms spread. "Have I established my dominance yet? Yes? Alright folks, the most wonderful person in the world wanted to ask something." He climbs from the table and sets himself down next to Mush, who presses a kiss to his forehead. "Thanks babe." 

"Gross", Henry comments and Blink violently kicks his shin underneath the table. As Henry rubs his shin with a pained expression on his face, he says: "You have too much anger for somebody so small." Immediately Blink shoots up and lunges at Henry but Mush drags him back by the collar of his jacket before he can seriously harm him. With a furious looking Blink entrapped in a hug, Mush starts to talk.

"Where are we going to hold our weekly movie night now that Medda kicked us out? And monthly karaoke night? I can't survive without monthly karaoke night." Blinks scoffs. "Yes you can. I'll make you." Mush smiles. "How do you always manage to make sweet sentences sound so menacing?" 

"Shut it, lovebirds and let's focus on the question", Tommy Boy says and snaps his fingers, gathering everyone's attention. "What are we gonna do?" Henry shoots up. "We could build a treehouse!" As the enthusiasm in the group grows, Crutchie coughs pointedly and taps Henry on the shoulder with his crutch. "I hope one of you knows how to make an elevator, because otherwise I'll have to fly into your treehouse." 

"Sorry Crutchie, that was dumb of me." Crutchie flippantly waves it off. "It's alright, just keep it in mind for the next time." 

"What if we used the demon's den?" Albert speaks up and all of them stare at him in disbelief. JoJo gets up from their seat, walks over to Albert and smacks him on the forehead with their rosary (their moms had given it to them and JoJo always carried it with them). "Albert, that's the most stupid fucking idea ever. Someone actually died in that house."

"I don't know guys", Race comments and his face shows that he's on board with Albert's idea. "I've heard that water and electricity are still useable in that house. The WiFi is probably still up too. How awesome would that be? Nobody ever goes there, so we could leave snacks and stuff there without anyone stealing it."

"It's the demon's den! Have you two gone totally insane?" Race and Albert look at each other and Elmer shakes his head. "Look, I'm in for most of the shit you pull. Stealing the principal's diary? Cool. Putting Mean Girls quotes on the bathroom walls? Totally fetch. Going into the demon's den after everything I've heard from my older sisters and mom? No way in hell, my dudes." 

Jack watches as arguments get thrown around until he finds a solution. "What if some of us went to check the place out first? If it's haunted, I doubt all of us will die. If it's not, then we have a neat new meeting place."

After some prodding, Jack finally has a team of people that's willing to go with him. Race and Albert, naturally. Mike and Ike are coming along too and from the mischievous smirks on their faces, he suspects that they are going to pull a few tricks. Not a thing he's looking forward to, but the bigger the group, the better. Out of curiosity, Specs will go too and Romeo volunteers shortly after him. Tommy Boy wants to know if he's able to beat up ghosts, so he will come too. 

The people who want absolutely nothing to do with it are Elmer, Buttons and Mush. Blink decides to stay with Mush. "He's going to fret all evening. I'm staying behind to keep him calm." Crutchie wants to go but decides against it. "I won't be able to run, should it be needed." Henry, Finch and surprisingly, JoJo are the last people who will also explore the house. "If there really is a demon, at least one of us will know what to do", JoJo sighs. Smalls and Sniper want to join too, but Jack chooses to leave the two fourteen year old girls at home. Smalls protests loudly, but Jack tells her that she has the special mission of distracting Medda. He does not tell her that Medda would kill him, should he get his little sister injured.

-

On a Saturday morning, the eleven of them gather in front of the demon's den. From outside, the house looks completely innocent. It has white walls, lovely blue windows and even a garden with a willow tree. The only slightly worrying thing about the house, is the fact that's it more around five miles away from its nearest neighbour and surrounded by a pond and the woods begin near the garden. For the people who aren't aware of its reputation, the house and its surroundings would paint an enchanting picture.

"We're going to split into smaller groups, that way we'll cover more ground on higher tempo", Jack announces. "Tommy Boy, you're with me. The rest of the pairs are the following: Race-Albert, the twins, Romeo-Specs and JoJo, Finch and Henry, you're a trio." 

Henry grins. "Nice, I've always wanted-" Before he can finish his sentence, JoJo whacks him with a decently sized cross. "Begone thot!" they scream and Jack watches bemused. "Let's go, Ralbert can go check the attic, the twins get the garden, Spromeo gets the first floor, JoFinchRy (that's awful Jack. Shut it, JoFinchRy) will explore the ground floor and you and me." He gives Tommy Boy a shaky smile and gets an unimpressed raised brow in return. "We're going sightseeing in the basement."

-

"Wanna bet that I'll get there first?" Albert shouldn't take the bet, because he knows damn well that Race is way faster than him. "Is that a challenge I hear, you thin twink?" "Does it sound like a challenge, grainy ginger?" Before Albert can answer, Race sprints up the stairs. Albert follows as fast as he can, but still manages to lose sight of Race.

-

Romeo is scanning the hallway, eyes wide and shaking slightly. "Are you okay?" Specs asks and Romeo frantically turns around as though he forgot that Specs was there too. "I'm fine! Totally cool! It's all cool, cool, cool, cool,..." There is no way, that Romeo feels as peachy as he badly pretends to be. "Hey, want to hold hands?" Romeo squints suspiciously at him. "Why? I'm not scared!" Inwardly, Specs sighs. "I am." He keeps his face perfectly straight and reaches out with a trembling hand. Instantly, Romeo clutches his arm. "Of course! If it makes you feel less scared, sure!" 

The truth is, Specs doesn't even know how Romeo manages to be scared. The sun is out and the interior is actually quite cosy. He likes the blue-white theme that the house has going on and his hands aren't trembling because he's scared, but because he had to bike the furthest and also forgot his scarf. He's cold, but Romeo pressed closely against him helps. 

-

The first thing Finch does when entering the house, is checking if the WiFi really still works like Race had claimed. "Holy shit!" he exclaims and within a second, JoJo has a...water gun? in their hands. "JoJo, what the fuck is that?" Expertly, they twirl the water gun between their fingers. "I got inspired by Buzzfeed Unsolved. This is baby is filled with holy water!" Henry, who heard everything, snorts. "Good job JoJo. By the way, what were you screaming for Finch?" With a gleeful expression on his face, he shows Henry and JoJo his phone. "Race was right. There is WiFi here! You don't even need a password!" JoJo gets their phone out too. "Would you look at that. Sweet." They peer into the living room the three of them are standing in. "I don't see anything concerning here. You guys want to watch John Mulaney with me?" "Fuck yeah." 

-

Jack regrets everything. Well, not everything, but everything that led to him standing in the badly illuminated basement of a supposedly haunted house. As he suppressed a whine, Tommy Boy sighed. "Wanna pull a Spromeo?" Jack shoots him a confused look and Tommy Boy offers him his hand with a groan. "Wanna hold hands, you stupid dipshit?" Without hesitation, Jack gives in. "Yes, please. What do you mean by pulling a Spromeo?" Tommy Boy looks at the ceiling, as though he can see Romeo and Specs right through it. "How much do you wanna bet that they're holding hands right now?" Jack kind of doubts that Specs would try anything like that with his little bro (strangers usually don't believe him and Romeo when they say that they're siblings. It's as though people have never heard of a little thing called adoption), but Tommy Boy seems really sure of himself, so Jack shrugs. "Eh, who cares. We've got a basement to explore."

-

"Race?" Albert calls out as he reaches the attic. "Please tell me you're here." When he gets no answer, he throws open the first door in sight. From the doorway he can see that this had been a place to stow away junk that had no place anywhere else. He finds a watering can, a duster and a coat rack, but no Racetrack. 

The second door leads to a small bathroom. Race isn't here either, but the sight of a bar of soap balancing on the edge of the sink, makes him strangely uncomfortable. He spots a basket with bath toys next to the bath, one rubber duck lays on its side next to the basket. Unable to stand the distressing atmosphere any longer, he exits the bathroom.

In the last room, he finds Race. The boy has a notebook in his hands and he's biting his lip. "Take a look at this", he says and his voice quivers. Silently, Albert accepts the notebook what upon further inspection, turns out to be a diary. The page that Race had been looking at, contained the last entry. The date scribbled in the corner was around two years ago. The whole page is covered with the same sentence over and over again. More than a hundred times, in a desperate scrawl, it says: 'I'm scared'. With wide eyes he stares at Race, who hands him another paper. 'Help me' it says. 'I don't know what to do. It's coming, it's coming, someone, anyone, please HELP ME' The last words are written so harshly that the paper is torn in some places. Dizzily, Albert sets himself down on the windowsill and peers outside, trying to calm his mind. He spots the willow beside the lake and he notices Mike and Ike next to the lake as well. Ike and Mike, who's squatting, turn around and as Albert raises his hand to wave at them, he catches the exact moment that Mike tumbles backwards into the water. 

-

"Why do we have to check the garden of all things?" Ike complains and Mike grins at his twin brother. "You know damn well why. It's a shame that we can't scare any of them from here." Ike smirks in return. "We could go inside. Follow them because we're just so worried about them, you know?" Mike nods enthusiastically until he remembers a tiny detail.

"What if we scare JoJo and get hit with that massive cross of theirs? I don't want to risk lethal injuries, man." After considering that thought for a minute, Ike agrees. "Yeah, I'd hate to explain that one to mom. Hey ma! Our friend pummelled us with a cross during ghost hunting!" 

Giggling, they walk toward the lake and Mike kneels down beside it. "Would you look at this water! It looks unnaturally clean. I bet you could swim in it without getting any weird diseases." Concerned, Ike looks down. "Please don't try that." "Spoilsport."

"Oh look, it's Albert", Ike informs Mike whileturning around and both of them wave at their ginger friend. "I wonder-" A scream interrupts Ike and he watches in horror as Mike plunges into the lake.


	2. Mike takes a scary shower and Romeo comes out of the closet.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Are you sure that you don't want to go first?" Although merely the thought of leaving the basement last makes him nervous, he shakes his head. "It's okay, nothing's gonna happen now."
> 
> As per usual, the world likes to prove Jack Kelly wrong. Just as he takes the last step, something yanks him down harshly.

After a while, Jack lets go of Tommy Boy's hand. "I think I'm good now." Tommy Boy folds his arms across his chest and scoffs. "That's because we're done here and standing at the bottom of the stairs, genius." Jack shrugs the comment off and bows. "After you, your majesty." Tommy sets one foot upon the stairs and looks back at Jack. "Are you sure that you don't want to go first?" Although merely the thought of leaving the basement last makes him nervous, he shakes his head. "It's okay, nothing's gonna happen now."

As per usual, the world likes to prove Jack Kelly wrong. Just as he takes the last step, something yanks him down harshly. He lands violently, sprawled over the stairs and both his right knee and his head hit the edge of a step full force. Through a pained daze, he feels Tommy Boy pull him up and he thinks that his friend is saying something to him, but he can't make out any words. 

"Look!" Romeo whispers excitedly and drags Specs into what seems to be a girl's bedroom. Unashamedly, he digs through a wardrobe and pulls out a dress. "A red vintage flat collar dress! I would look totally awesome in this." Specs examines the dress. The top is white with flowers and the bottom is red, just like the ribbon and the collar. Romeo is right, he would rock that thing, but there are some minor issues. "What if it belonged to a murdered girl?" Romeo shrugs. "Then she had a damned good sense of fashion. Gimme a moment." He climbs into the wardrobe, closes the door behind him and changes into the dress. Specs watches the door and isn't sure whether he's amused or annoyed. The smile that plays around his lips, tells him that it's the former.

Inside the closet, Romeo finishes dressing up and attempts to open the closet door again. Frowning, he shakes the doorknob. "Specs?" he calls out. "I can't get out. The door's stuck." He hears Specs come closer and feels the wardrobe shake as he struggles to open the door. Trying not to panic, he leans against the back of the closet. As he breathes deeply in and out, he feels something tug on his dress. Desperately he tries to locate the source of the tugging, but the darkness in the closet prevents it. It jerks the dress harder, comes closer and Romeo can feel air hitting his neck. He'd call it breathing, if it doesn't feel so inhuman. The 'breathing' is so off, but he can't pinpoint what exactly is wrong with it. The rhythmic puffs of air get closer and as Romeo feels something clamp his arm, the door swings open. 

He doesn't fully register that he can get out of the small space, until Specs reaches out and he slaps him so hard that his glasses go flying. As Specs perplexedly stares at him, he realizes what he's done. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry", he stammers and attempts to exit the wardrobe, but fails and his legs give out beneath him. "Oh, would you look at that", he says and dissolves into sobs.

Albert and Race carry him out of the closet asSpecs retrieves his glasses. "Jesus Christ. Romeo, are you alright?" He manages to nod, but Race doesn't believe him for even one second and wraps his arms around him. "It's okay, I'm here", he says in a soothing manner. 

Before anybody can answer, Albert runs into the room. He frowns at Jack's bleeding head and mutters something along the lines of: "I'll deal with that later" and runs off again. They watch him go in silence.

"That was...weird", Henry states and Tommy Boy shrugs. "We've all seen him do weirder shit." "That's true", Jack slurs out and sits up. "Youok there, boss?" Finch asks and Jack manages to nod. "Yeah. My head hurtsthough. My knee too." He places one hand against his forehead and when he pullshis hand back, he notices the blood on it. "Can one of you grab a rag or something? I'm bleeding." 

-

After a few seconds of shock, Mike's instincts kick in and he swims back to the shore. Or at least tries to swim back, but he can't reach the surface. Something is dragging him down by his ankle, but he can't shake it off, no matter how hard he tries. Right now, the lack of oxygen is making his head spin and darkness peaks at the edges of his vision. It's cold, he feels heavy and he can't get out of the water. Mike gives up.

Nervously, Ike peers at the lake, hoping to catch sight of his brother. It's strange that he can't see him, because Mike fell right beside him. When Mike doesn't show up, he elects to take drastic measures and jumps after him. 

Luckily, he notices Mike almost immediately. It's hard not to see him when he's struggling so wildly, but suddenly he goes completely slack. Without hesitating Ike swims over to his brother and hooks his arms under Mike's armpits and swims back to the shore. Once there, he lugs Mike unto the shore and checks if he's breathing. When he finds no breathing, he swears loudly. "Fuck, fuck, fuck." Through his panic, he tries to remember how to do cpr and finds his mind to be disturbingly blank.

He barely registers Albert steering him away from Mike. Albert checks his pulse and when he finds none, he places the heel of one hand on Mike's chest and starts pressing down. After about 15 compressions, Mike sputters out some water and coughs. "Easy there", Albert remarks and Mike takes a few deep, shuddering breaths. "Fuck", is the first thing that comes out of his mouth and Ike knocks him over and hugs his brother close. "I agree with that statement." Albert stands up and pulls the both of them up too. "We should go inside and search for something to dry you both off. You're gonna get a cold otherwise.”

-

Albert and the twins enter the living room at the same time as Race, Romeo and Specs, who raises his brow at the sight of the soaked twins. "They'll tell us when we're reunited with the others", Albert says and spots the rest of their exploration team. "I'm gonna do a headcount", Jack declares. "Ralbert?" "Present", Race answers for the both of them. "Spromeo?" "Here and queer." Both of them giggle and Jack suppresses a snort. "The threesome?" "Refer to us like that one more time and I'll kill you", JoJo mutters under their breath and Jack finger guns. "Noted. Tommy Boy was with me and the twins?" The pair waves awkwardly, as water drips unto the floor. "Why are you guys wet?"

"Now, that's a bit of a personal question", Mike says with a grin on his face and Ike elbows him in the ribs. "Mike almost drowned because he forgot how to swim." Mike turns toward his brother with an indignant expression on his face. "I did not! I got stuck, jackass."

Before it can escalate into a full-blown sibling fight, Albert intervenes and at his request, Race goes back to the attic bedroom to fetch some clothes for the twins. "Wait for me!" JoJo shouts as Race ventures into the hallway. "I'll bring protection!" 

-

The journey to the attic goes without a hitch and while Race raids the wardrobe, JoJo looks around the bedroom. They spot a shit ton of books (whoever lived here, must've loved reading), a pair of glasses in the bedside table and one drawer filled with fluffy socks. They steal two pairs of those for the twins and one for themselves. "These are a fire hazard waiting to happen", they state and hold up a few candles they found on the wooden desk.

Race snorts in return. "I think we're pretty safe, considering that there's no one here to light those candles. Here hold these." He hands JoJo pants and white button-downs. Grinning, he also plucks two vests and ties out of the wardrobe. As JoJo regards the ties with a disbelieving look on their face, Race grabs a third one and puts it on himself. "Don't I look dashing?" "Absolutely not. Let's go." 

-

Between snickers, Finch manages to say: "You look charming, fellas." He gets murderous glares in return. Besides the fact that neither Mike nor Ike would ever voluntarily wear button-downs and ties, every piece of clothing is just the slightest bit too big for them.

"So, what's the final verdict?" Specs questions. "Do we use this house or not?" 

"I think there's nothing wrong with using it", Tommy Boy declares and Romeo pulls a face. "Everything that went wrong today, looks like the effect of nervousness. Romeo got stuck, Jack fell and Mike probably slipped in the mud." 

"That sounds logical, but I'm not willing to accept that this house is 100% ghost free", Romeo states. "Well, whenever we'll be using this place, we'll be with around 20 people. I think the ghosts are gonna be more scared of us than we of them", Henry says and they all agree with that. It's hard to be afraid when you're watching Tangled for the trillionth time.

"So this is the new official Newsies gathering place?" Jack inquires and gets varying responses, some more enthusiastic than others. The gist is the same however. It's a yes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to point out all my mistakes! Or to talk to me on tumblr if you want. (rivertellsstories) I don’t bite, but I am fucking awkward :)


	3. The only logical thing to do in a haunted house, is to watch Barbie movies.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> JoJoButtons happens and also:
> 
> By Sunday noon, the demon's den living room had traces of every newsie all over it and they decide to throw a modest housewarming party. Henry and Buttons have taken over the kitchen and are baking cookies, Finch and Sniper are outside, trying to teach Smalls how to use a slingshot. It's not going well, but at least they aren't inside with those slingshots. A bunch of people are lazing around on the couch and on chairs. The unfortunate ones have to sit on the floor. Race and Albert are trying to make the DVD-player work and it seems like they're succeeding. Romeo and Specs are having a heated discussion over which Barbie movie they should watch.

By Sunday noon, the demon's den living room had traces of every newsie all over it and they decide to throw a modest housewarming party. Henry and Buttons have taken over the kitchen and are baking cookies, Finch and Sniper are outside, trying to teach Smalls how to use a slingshot. It's not going well, but at least they aren't inside with those slingshots. A bunch of people are lazing around on the couch and on chairs. The unfortunate ones have to sit on the floor. Race and Albert are trying to make the DVD-player work and it seems like they're succeeding. Romeo and Specs are having a heated discussion over which Barbie movie they should watch.

"Princess and the Pauper!" Romeo yells and hits Specs with a pillow he found somewhere. "Three Musketeers!" Specs shrieks back and wrestles with Romeo. Jack silently inserts Barbie & the Diamond Castle before either of them notices it and when the movie starts to play, they break up their fight to glare at the tv. "Who is the fool that wants to die?" Romeogrowls and Specs glares too. Wisely, Jack stays silent and sits down in front of the couch. Grumbling, Specs and Romeo sit down too and angrily snack on the potatochips that Mush brought along. 

Speaking of Mush, Jack is fairly sure that he and Blink are making out somewhere. Ah well, who cares. 

Halfway through the movie, the two of them return and Blink drapes himself across all the people who are sitting on the couch and steals a cookie from Elmer. "This is cosy." The sentence is barely understandable through the cookie in his mouth and Mush gives him a disgusted look. "Really Blink? I've got to kiss that mouth." With his mouth still full of cookies, Blink grins. "You've got to do exactly nothing." "Okay then", Mush says and leaves for the kitchen. Promptly, Blink clambers from the mountain of people he had placed himself on and trails after Mush. "Babe, come back!"

"Whipped", Specs whispers as soon as Blink is out of earshot and Tommy Boy snorts. "Like you are any better." Specs turns to him with a confused look on his face. "What's that supposed to mean? I don't have a boyfriend. I wish I had a boyfriend. I'm lonely." Romeo reaches up to pat his head. "Same bro." Their friends watch the scene, but decide not to comment on it. Eventually they'll figure it out. Maybe. Who knows.

"You know what this evening-" "It's afternoon" "Shut up Jack. Do you know what this evening needs?" Buttons asks, when she gently pushes JoJo out of their chair and claims it for herself. "Candles!" JoJo, who's now on the floor, gives her a smile. "I can get you those, wait here for a minute." After JoJo left the room, Tommy Boy smirks. "Whipped nr.2", he announces and Buttons kicks him for it. "Shut up, dickwad." 

Within record time, JoJo is back with some candles. "The first time we went here, I discovered these", they inform Buttons. "Now get off my chair and enjoy your candles." Childishly she refuses to return their chair. "Nope it's mine now. Nothing you can do about it." They give her a flat look before picking her up and lifting her high above their head. "You weight literally nothing", they remark before sitting down on the chair and placing Buttons on their lap. "There we go, place for two." 

Nothing out of place happens, and in the late afternoon, before the sun begins to set, they say goodbye to each other and plan to meet up here the next Saturday with the whole group. Some people want to come back earlier in the week and Jack advises them to go in groups. "In case you fall down the stairs", he adds as a joke, but it falls flat as all of them pointedly stare at his right leg, where is his pants are hiding a massive bruise. Then their gazes travel up to his forehead, where a faint line indicates the place where he headbutted a step. "Just be careful y'all."

Later that night, when JoJo is staring at their ceiling, trying to fall asleep, they suddenly come to a conclusion. They recall grabbing the candles, and dropping them again because they had been hot. They are fairly certain that none of the newsies had gone upstairs, which means that someone else must've lit those candles. The sound of their phone alerts them of a new message in their group chat. 'Anybody want to go to the DD (demon's den) w/me after school tomorrow? I need to fill up our snack cabinets.'

Immediately they want to tell Buttons not to go, but then they remember that Blink and Mush had been gone for a suspiciously long time during the movie. Also, aren't candles supposed to be a mood setter or something? Relieved that they simply have a very active imagination, they shoot a message back. 'Sure, count me in.' 

“I'm going to fucking kill Denton" rages Buttons as she enters the 'DD'. "Who deducts points for grammar mistakes?" "Well, he is our English teacher", JoJo points out and they get a glare in return. They raise their hands in surrender. "Don't mind me stating the facts." Grumbling, she admits that they are sort of right. "I'm craving some cookies and this house has a working oven. Want to help?" Despite never having baked cookies before, JoJo quickly agrees. 

"Jorgelino Josephino De La Guerra" The use of their full name shouldn't get to them like this, but JoJo's heart skips a beat and their breathing stutters for a minute. "Yeah?" they answer when they're sure that their voice isn't going to sound like that of a six year old. "What in God's name are you doing?" Button's voice is filled with amusement and JoJo sticks out their tongue. "I'm making cookies, Yasmin Davenport", he retorts and she tries to keep herself from cracking up. "I see", she says and eyes their clothes, which were black half an hour ago. Now they are streaked with flour. 

They even managed to get some of the stuff in their hair. "Bow down, skyscraper. There's flour in your hair." They bow down and as Buttons reaches for their hair, JoJo places their arms around her legs and hauls her up. "There we go", they giggle as they set a shrieking Buttons on the kitchen counter. "That's better for my back." "What are you? An eighty year old?" "Slowly getting there."

Sitting on the kitchen counter, Buttons is finally taller than JoJo and as she looks down at their messy hair and lazy grin and feels the warmth of their hands on her thighs, she leans down. JoJo meets her halfway and for a few seconds it's merely their lips touching. Then JoJo growls and pulls her close, while she tangles her hands into their hair and gives an experimental tug. That, combined with her softly tugging on their bottom lip, draws an obscene sound from their lips and Buttons groans in return. 

"Fuck JoJo", she breathes and kisses their neck. "I've been wanting this since sixth grade", she pants. "Remember when someone pulled the arm of my favourite teddy bear off and you tried to stitch it back? Your stitching was awful, but damn if it wasn't sweet." She presses another bruising kiss onto their neck and JoJo keens. When their eyes cross, JoJo brings out: "Me since eighth." They gently rub circles into Button's thighs and she sighs with pleasure. "That fucking teacher wouldn't stop misgendering me no matter how much I asked and you plainly started screeching whenever he opened his mouth. That's when I first thought: yup, she's the one."

While they are busy staring at each other, they hear the sound of a door opening. Quickly they spring apart and Buttons calls out: "Hey! Who's there?" When she gets no answer, she and JoJo trade glances. "Wanna go look?" she asks and they nod. "Wait, let me take this along." Out of their backpack they grab a 12 inch cross. "JoJo, I'm 90% sure that ghosts don't exist." JoJo grins and mischief sparkles in their eyes as they reveal a blade hidden within the cross. "This one ain't for ghosts." With an aghast expression on her face she eyes the cross-dagger in JoJo's hand. "Why do you have such a thing? Where do you even get something like that? Whatever, just don't give one to Race. Ever." "Bold of you to assume that I haven't given him one yet." 

Nothing seems out of the ordinary as they wander around the house and every door they come across is closed. Even the doors upstairs aren't open. Confused, JoJo enters the attic bedroom and plops down on the bed. As Buttons sits down next to them, the door locks itself. Immediately both of them rush to the door and try to open it in vain. "What the fuck", Buttons whispers as she peers through the keyhole. "There's no key in here, but we both heard a key and this fucking door won't open. There's nobody in the hallway and we heard no one. What the shit is going on?"

Before JoJo can answer, a high and feminine scream rings through the house. In a moment of clarity, JoJo pulls out their phone and calls the first person in his contact list. For a moment they fear that nothing's going to happen, but then they hear that the call is going through and after three rings, Finch picks up. "Sup JoJo."

"HeyButtonsandImightbedyingsoonpleasehelpus" They spit the words out at a nearly impossible pace and Finch is silent for a minute. "What? Speak slower buddy." 

"We're in the demon's den and we're locked into the room. There should be nobody here except us, but we just heard someone scream. Please help us." 

"Shit, I'm coming. Where exactly are you guys?" "We're in the attic bedr-" Once again, a scream is heard throughout the house and judging by the sharp intake of his breath, Finch had heard it too. "Fuck, I hope you guys have something to defend yourselves with. I'm on my way." Finch hangs up and JoJo clutches their dagger-cross tighter.

The minutes go by slowly and both of them sit on the bed in silence. Their hands are intertwined and JoJo runs their thumb over the back of Button's hand in what they hope is a comforting manner. A smile graces Button's lips as she gives them a brief kiss on the tip of their nose. "You're a sweetheart" They want to tell her the same thing and about a million things more, but the words get stuck in their throat and all they can do is blush and press little kisses all over Button's face. 

"Would'ya look at that", Finch comments as he enters the room, a grin plastered on his stupid face. It's hard to tell whether JoJo or Buttons is glaring more at him, but he ignores it. “This one" he raps his knuckles against the door "was open. If you weren't busy" he waggles his eyebrows at that part and continues "maybe you would've noticed. Also, you guys left the tv on and some horror movie was playing. I shut it off."

From downstairs, the sound of voices travel up and as Buttons and JoJo tense up, Finch quickly waves away their fears. "That's just the guys. I called everybody and they all wanted to be involved in the JoButtons rescue mission."The tension drains out of their shoulders and Buttons grabs JoJo's hand and speed walks out of the room. For some reason,JoJo looks back and their eyes land on a mirror. They can't make out a face, oreven a person but when they close their eyes, hauntingly blue eyes are imprinted in their mind.

As JoJo goes down the stairs, they see something move out of the corner of their eye and turn to look at it. Their own image stares back at them from a mirror, but the view is distorted, like in one of those houses of mirrors at the carnival. As they stand still to watch their comically warped reflection, it changes. Its amused smile moulds itself into an unnaturally wide grin and when it opens its mouth, it reveals two rows of teeth on both the upper- and lower side of it's mouth. The image unravels its long, sharp tongue and licks the second row of teeth in the upper side of its mouth. Completely caught in a mix between horror and morbid fascination, JoJo keeps watching until Finch's voice breaks them out of their trance.

"What'cha looking at JoJo?" When Finch looks at the mirror, JoJo's reflection has turned back to normal. "That's a pretty funny thing, but if we keep standing on these stairs, the others will worry. Let's go downstairs." JoJo complies to Finch's request, but as they turn their back to the mirror, they feel a gaze following them. It feels awfully wrong and merely thinking about it makes them nauseous. "JoJo", a mangled voice garbles and judging by their lack of a reaction neither Finch nor Buttons heard it. JoJo pretends they don't either and they have never felt more relieved than when they set a foot into the living room and get surrounded by a heap of newsies.

The first person who comes into view is Romeo. He runs towards them, opens his arms for a hug, sees the cross-dagger in JoJo's hand and immediately retreats. "Excuse my wording, but what the fuck is that?" From the couch, Race holds up a necklace with a cross and clicks it open. "Look Romeo, JoJo gave me one too!" Befuddled, Buttons rakes a hand through her hair. "I thought you were kidding when you said that Race had one too. Why did you think that was a good idea?" They smile sheepishly at her. "Sorry babe, but since Albert handled his responsibly, I thought Race would be able to do the same."

As Jack shouts: "Babe?" in utter confusion, Buttons looks like she's on the brink of a breakdown. "Albert has a dagger-cross too? JoJo you can't do that."

"That's right", a new voice speaks up and the room falls silent. All of them stare at the new boy leaning against the doorframe with Hello Kitty socks on his feet, as he casually eats the chocolate that was supposed to go into JoJo and Buttons' cookies. "No crosses", he continues. "This is a nice and respectable Jewish household."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rivertellsstories on tumblr, always ready to scream about noosies , please tell me if there are mistakes in this fic.


	4. Hello, Jewish Hello Kitty kid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first one to react is unsurprisingly Albert. Being the brawler he is, he has the new boy in a headlock before he can utter another word. "Are you a ghost?" Albert asks while choking the living shit out of the kid, who quite understandably can't answer.
> 
> "Uhm Al? By the blue hue he's getting, I'm gonna assume that's a living and breathing person. Well, not for long if you keep that up", Race remarks and Albert lets him go. "Whoops. Didn't notice that."

The first one to react is unsurprisingly Albert. Being the brawler he is, he has the new boy in a headlock before he can utter another word. "Are you a ghost?" Albert asks while choking the living shit out of the kid, who quite understandably can't answer.

"Uhm Al? By the blue hue he's getting, I'm gonna assume that's a living and breathing person. Well, not for long if you keep that up", Race remarks and Albert lets him go. "Whoops. Didn't notice that."

For a moment, the only sound in the living room are the new teen's wheezes that sound slightly concerning. "You ok there?" The sarcasm drips from his words as he answers Specs' question. "Oh yeah, I'm just peachy."

With his arm on Specs' lower back, Romeo sticks out his tongue. "There's no need to be rude, I mean, we were here first you know." The guy arches an eyebrow at that and scoffs. "I highly doubt it." He radiates polite hostility and would probably throw them all out of the house if he could. But one look at his skinny ass arms tells Jack that he does not have the prowess to do that and as a result, he has taken to glaring at all of them from across the room.

Truth is, in any other situation, this would be the time where Jack turns on the charm and tries to mediate. But the guy emits this smart-person-energy. And not just any smart-person-energy, no of course not, he emits smart-person-who-rolls-their-eyes-at-Jack-energy and Jack isn't ready to face someone that powerful on a Monday evening, so he wisely shuts up and nudges Crutchie, who rolls his eyes at him. This doesn't have any effect on Jack, because he is quite used to his friends rolling their eyes at him.

"I think we started on the wrong foot. Hi there, I'm Crutchie." He waves of the guy's affronted look. "It's what I wanna be called. Who are you?" For a moment, Jack thinks that the guy is going to turn up his nose and completely dismiss Crutchie, but then his expression morphs from apathetic to slightly confused and his straight back goes a bit more slack. Leave it to Crutchie to change someone from frigid and bitch-faced to lanky and awkward.

"David's the name, reading books is the game." David freezes the moment he realizes what he said and eyes the window in a longing manner. "Please bury me again. I'm not good at this. " Jack pats him on the shoulder in a comforting manner. "It's okay Davey, just throw in a grin and some finger guns and you'll look more fun and open. It's a trick that works for everybody." As David takes Jack's advice, it becomes evident that it does, in fact, not work for everyone. David's finger gun game is weak and if he thinks that that...creation on his face is worthy of being called a grin, he's deadly wrong.

"You're really, really bad at this", Crutchie affirms and David pouts. "Whatever. Who needs friends when you've got a house?" Race, who had been quiet until that moment, jumps up and throws one of his arms around David. "But why live in a house alone when you can share it with your friends?" David's lips are pressed together in a tight, unamused line, but Race's eyes twinkle and he nudges David in his side as though he's an old friend. "C'mon Dave, let us stay!"

"What do you think my parents are going to think of a group of strangers in our house?" Race smiles shrewdly and hums, while tapping on David's arm with his pointer finger. "Davey, Davey, I may be stupid a lot of times, but whenever there's something to gain, I'm one smart motherfucker. This house has a reputation of being uninhabited and yeah, the lack of dust and filth indicates regular cleaning, which means that someone comes here regularly, but the thing is..." 

Race pauses for a dramatic effect and Albert allows him to relish in the attention he's getting for about two seconds. After that, he whacks Race with his cap. "Continue idiot." Moping, Race gives him a light shove. "I greatly prefer well deserved praise over this though love bullshit, bitch." Albert rolls his eyes, hooks his chin over Race's shoulder and wraps his arms around the other boy. "Racer, my dearest blue eyed bitch, continue or I will squeeze the air outta ya." 

"Are they dating?"David asks and Race shrugs. "Who's to say? Al?" The boy in question places a sloppy kiss on Race's temple and shrugs too. "Hell, if I know. After that one incident...",the whole group collectively cringes and David looks confused at all of them. Nobody elaborates, "I'm just going to assume I'm dating all of you unless you explicitly state that we ain't dating." "Fair enough."

"Anyway, if you lived here, David dearest." the boy cringes at the nickname, but Race ignores it. "We would've seen you when we were decorating the place, but you weren't here all weekend." "Objection!" Elmer yells and Race turns to him, his left eye twitching. "Why are you objecting? Don't you want to use this house?" Elmer smiles sheepishly. "I saw this one anime-" "God help me", Race groans and Elmer headbutts Race gently. "You're scared that my anime logic is less flawed than your normal logic, coward."

Never one to give up on a challenge, Race sticks out his chin. "Give me your best shot, anime lawyer." Elmer straightens his posture and clears his throat pointedly  as he stares Race down. "He could've just left for the weekend, ya know."  

After that sentence they all wait for Elmer to continue and when he picks up on it, he clasps his hands together. "That was the objection." Race puffs out his chest and yells: "Overobjection!" "I don't think that's a thing Racer." "Shut up Romeo. If you look at the-..."

As Race and Elmer engage in a battle of wits and Newsies encourage both of them, David separates himself from the group and Jack follows him. "Have you guys got any interesting movies?" With a sheepish grin, Jack shows the several Barrie movies he brought along. "Crutchie probably has some Disney movies with him too. Actually, Crutchie definitely has all the Disney movies with him, you name any title and he's got it." Without hesitation, David picks Barbie and the Diamond Castle. "I like this one", he declares and Jack gasps. Taking David's hands into his own, he whispers: "Marry me, oh wise one." A small smile plays along David's lips and he shakes his head. "You're silly." 

The amusement in his voice captures Jack's attention and he lets his eyes glide over David's face. It's worrying how pale he is and judging by the blue bags underneath his eyes, he hasn't been sleeping much either. The hands that are still clasped within his own are cold and shaking slightly. The longer he looks, the more off David looks. His dark brown curls frame his face awkwardly. In the front they still look sort of normal, but they're a mess in the back. They look as though David cut them himself instead of going to a hairdresser.

Before Jack can ask whether there's something wrong with him, the sound of Race screeching is heard and when he looks over, he sees that Elmer and Race are about to get into a fistfight and sighs deeply. "Guys, knock it off." The two of them turn to him at the same and yell simultaneously: "We're fighting for our house rights!"

"You guys can stay, I don't mind. Though I would appreciate if you returned to your homes before sundown and that you don't come here alone. Also, shout for me whenever you enter the house, because otherwise you could get stuck in some sticky situations. Oh, and please don't go to the basement."

Albert crosses his arms over each other. "That's a lot of rules for a house without ghosts. I bet there's one in the basement." David rolls his eyes. "Why are you all so obsessed with ghosts? There's a leak in the basement right above the staircase, so the chance that you'll slip and injure yourself badly is big." Discreetly, the newsies look at Jack. Unfortunately, doing something discreetly doesn't work out when twenty people suddenly stare at exactly one person's forehead. "So that warning came too late, huh?" 

"I live in this place, so it would be nice to have my evenings to myself, so I'm throwing all of you out before sundown. Also, this entire house is a maze and it's easy to get lost in here."

"Davey, there's a basement, ground floor, first floor and attic. That's a lot of space, but you're talking as though this house has three hundred rooms, I doubt anyone's gonna get lost in here." David gives Finch a sharp smile. "Oh really? Because your friend told me a few minutes ago that none of you saw me during the weekend and I was in the house at the time."

"That's creepy", Mush remarks dryly and Blink scowls at David. "Were you spying on us, you fucknugget?" 

"Look, when you've been on your own in a house for two years and suddenly your house is filled with rowdy teenagers, you ignore it because you think you're hallucinating stuff again. But when they keep returning and being so vociferous-"

Romeo interrupts him. "What's vociferous?" "Noisy. Loud. Annoying", David spits out between gritted teeth. "Then you go to meet them and get choked." From his point of view, this does indeed look like a sucky situation. Jack claps him on the shoulder and attempts to change the subject.

"Tell me more about the house, are there secret rooms or something? Or are you just really good at hiding?" David visibly brightens and starts to rattle of facts about the house. "Indeed there are secret rooms! This house was built around 1650, when witch trials were becoming a regular occurrence and it has many secret rooms to hide people accused of witchcraft. My family is very obviously Jewish and that wasn't appreciated by their Christian town. Getting accused of being a witch was sort of a coming of age tradition within the family. It became sort of a running joke within the family. If you haven't been accused of being a witch, you aren't a true..."

David trails off and tilts his head, as though he hears something that nobody else does. Then he seems to dismiss it, shakes his head and continues his history lesson. "I've personally found over thirty extra rooms in this house, not counting the many corridors this house hides. Do you want to see some of them?"

"We're going ghost hunting", Albert whispers excitedly and at this point, David has taken to ignoring him. He does something with the panel beside the bookcase, but shields the view with his body so none of them can see what he exactly does. There's a loud creaking and with difficulty, the panel slides to the left and reveals a surprisingly well lit hallway. "Let's go!" David says in a cheery manner and Albert whoops enthusiastically.

As David leads them through hallways upon hallways, he and Albert nerd over architecture. After that nerding session, Albert tries to convince David of the existence of both ghosts and aliens, backing himself up with every piece of (semi-)scientific evidence he knows on the top of his head. The overload of alien facts seems to have opened up David completely and he's energetically giving Albert his own opinions and thoughts.

"Before you know it, Albert's gonna invite him to our three am alien spotting meetings", Race comments and grins. "Didn't I ask you guys to stop that?" Jack asks and Race, the bastard, pretends that he doesn't hear him. "I think it would be cool, kid's lonely. Well, looking at the fact that he's on his own and probably around your age, I don't think it's that surprising."Race quickly glancesat David and when he's sure that the other teen isn't paying attention to theirconversation, he whispers more questions into Jack's ear.

"Where do you think his parents are? He mentioned that this house has been inhabited by his family for ages, but now he's here alone. Even more strange is the fact that he started to live in solitude two years, that's around the time the incident happened. Who in their right mind would want to stay here after that? Any slightly sane person would've packed their stuff and left, but he's still here. Also, the layout of this house was meant to protect people, yet that thing still happened. Assuming that the knowledge of the structure of this house was only passed around within the family, one of them must've...must've...done it." Race visible swallows and whitens.

“And now we’re wandering around these hallways, following the only member of the family who stayed after that tragedy.” 

Jack catches unto his younger brother’s implication immediately and grabs his arm. “Do you think that David...” His mouth goes dry and his mind becomes a storm. Is David lying about certain stuff? Is he a murderer? He discreetly shoots a glance at David and as he hears him talk about the specifics of alien procreation with Albert, his worries ease a bit. There’s no way that David would intentionally harm someone.

“Let’s ask Romeo about his erhm.... aesthetic”, Jack suggests and Race nods and calls their youngest brother over. As Romeo moves to tug Specs, whom he had been talking to, along, Race aggressively mouths ‘no’ and points at Romeo. The boys face sours and he lets go of Specs’s sleeve and makes his way over to them. “This better be important”, he huffs and Race casually throws his arm around him. “Ro, my favourite brother” (Jack balks at that) “Give me a mood board for Davey over there.”

‘Aesthetic’ and ‘mood board’ are both codewords with a meaning that’s only clear to members of the Official Larkin-Kelly-Higgins Brotherhood. It refers to Romeo’s ability to pick up stuff about people and if you combined all the details he instinctively knows about people, you could probably make a pretty neat mood board. 

The first things Romeo ever said to Race had been the following five words: betting, horse races, mom, Albert and family. At that point, Romeo hadn’t even met Albert and knew nothing about Race’s background and yet he had just known that those five things were fundamental to Race. When asked about it, the tiny Romeo had shrugged and told them that people had certain vibes that he picked upon.

At that time, it had been kind of freaky, but not something they spent a lot of attention on. After all, it could’ve been creepy coincidence. However, Romeo’s gift kept popping up after that and one time, it had probably saved their lives. 

Jack and Race had been eleven and ten respectively and Romeo himself had been no older than nine. For the whole day they had been in another town, playing in a park, while Medda was visiting a friend of her who lived nearby. When the evening came around and Medda still hadn’t come back, the two older boys had begun to grow worried, until a man with a gentle smile had shown up and asked them if they were Medda’s boys. 

Relieved, Jack had nodded and as he called for Race and Romeo to come along with the man, Romeo tripped and held a crying fit. As Jack and Race uselessly tried to calm him down, a lady with a baby stroller knelt down next to him and asked: “What’s wrong darling?” Instead of pointing out where he was hurt, he told the lady that he didn’t know the strange man.

When the woman turned to Jack for confirmation of this, he nodded uncomfortably and told her that he had indeed never seen the man before, but the man did know their mom’s name. “Boys, do you know your mom’s phone number?” Jack gave the woman Medda’s number and as she called her, she instructed the boys to keep close to her. After her short phone call to Medda, she tells the brothers that Medda’s on her way and calls another number. 

“Hello, 911?”

When both the police and Medda arrived, they, well mostly Jack, received a stern lecture. “What were you thinking boy?” Medda asks as she holds the three of them tightly. “It’s good one of you decided to use his brain today, otherwise... Who knows what could’ve happened?”

“He was planning on taking us somewhere”, Romeo said, eyes distant. “A dark room. There’s a lot of boys there and they do nasty stuff, but not because they want to. Geoffrey Gain”, he pointed at the man “is a bad blue, not a good one like Jack.” 

All in all it ended well for them, the guy got arrested and by now, they all knew better than to doubt Romeo.

Present day Romeo seizes David up and gives his older brothers his verdict. “He’s deep royal purple, with gold flecks here and there, but on a whole it looks washed out. It’s as though his colours should’ve been deeper, more vivid, but they’re not. Not a bad guy, not necessarily a people person but 300% ride or die for the people he likes. He’s also...weird.”

Romeo stares really hard and long at the back of David’s head and continues. “There’s a lot of him...missing? I don’t know any other way to put it. Like, his aura is all washed out and there’s things about him that I can vaguely see, but not read. To be honest, that’s what bother me most, but all in all I don’t think he’s the bad one in this house.”

Race blinks at Romeo’s wording. “Then who is?” Romeo shakes his head and he’s starting to look upset. “Not a who, a what. I don’t know what exactly, but don’t talk about it, it makes it worse.” 

“Is it a ghost?” Race presses on and Romeo swats him away. “No, I’m not talking about the ghosts, there’s something worse here. I don’t think the ghosts are that bad, highly annoying at best.” 

“Jesus Christ, now there are ghosts too?” Jack breathes and Romeo shrugs. “Yeah, but since David didn’t mention them, I thought he didn’t want us to know about them. I’m gonna enjoy the fuck outta seeing him find excuses for all the stunts those ghosts are gonna pull.” Jack’s eyes widen in surprise. “He knows about them?”

Romeo rolls his eyes, but then he realises that neither Jack nor Race are sensitive to this stuff. “He’s been leading us away from ghosts from this whole tour now and glaring at them when they try to come closer. He definitely knows.”

Suddenly, David’s head snaps up and he stares straight at the three of them. At least, that’s what Jack thought he was staring at, but the David’s eyes don’t focus on any of them. He’s staring past them and then his eyes focus again . “Sundown’s coming. You’re leaving.” His time of voice, previously chipper, sounds grave now and leaves no room for argument. 

In a record time, they’re back at their starting point. On the way there, Jack is fairly sure that they took a route that wasn’t there the first time they crossed those hallways. It’s as though extra hallways appeared, but shit like that can’t just happen. 

As David hastily works them out of the door, Jack wants to turn around to say goodbye, but Romeo stops him. “Jack, trust David on this one. None of us should be there after sundown.” The fear in his younger brother’s eyes tells him that David doesn’t want them out of the house because he wants some peace and quiet. He wonders what David and Romeo see what he doesn’t, but Romeo shakes his head. “I’m not talking about it. Especially not after sundown, standing in front of this house.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please tell me my grammatical errors, because I never edit before posting. Talk to me on Tumblr if you’d like, I’m rivertellsstories over there :)


	5. Mike and Ike don't share rooms and this is the first time that Ike has issues with that.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ike wakes up because someone's straddling his chest and breathing heavily into his neck. His first thought is that it's Mike and he fights the instinct to roughly shove him off. But then he notices that the ragged breathing sounds too deep to be Mike and without opening his eyes, he knows that whatever is in his room, is not Mike.

Ike wakes up because someone's straddling his chest and breathing heavily into his neck. His first thought is that it's Mike and he fights the instinct to roughly shove him off. But then he notices that the ragged breathing sounds too deep to be Mike and without opening his eyes, he knows that whatever is in his room, is not Mike. 

He fakes his sleep as the thing lets out short, curious noises and with cold, sharp fingers it takes hold of Ike's chin and turns his head. It takes everything he has to not scream as a tongue slowly drags itself across the side of his face. 

After a moment of pause, it moves it nails harshly across Ike's cheek and gurgles out some syllables, which Ike can decipher to be one word over and over again. "Wrong, wrong, wrong", it wails quietly and Ike assembles all his courage and peeks into his room. Something slinks out of his room and Ike lets out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. Until he realises what the thing is looking for. If Ike is 'wrong' then right would be..."MIKE!" he screams and runs for his brother's bedroom.

"Mike!" he yells as he storms into Mike's bedroom. With a wild look he scans the room and immediately he lays eyes upon his still sleeping brother. The thing is nowhere to be seen and Ike rushes to Mike's side. Gently he shakes his twin brother and tries to wake him up. "Mike, wake up please." He grumbles and turns around, but doesn't wake up.

Because he's so busy trying to get Mike to wake up, he doesn't notice it until it clasps an arm around his mouth and drags him to the floor. Ike struggles for his dear life, but the iron grip the thing has on him doesn't leave him room to budge and the arm over his mouth cover his nose as well and it's disturbing how fast he's running out of air. He wants Mike, who's not even a foot away from him to get up and help him, but no noise gets past his lips and tears gather in his eyes. Is he going to die here, right beside his brother?

It doesn't take long for his desperate clawing to lose its force and against his will, he goes slack and his vision whitens out. He's distinctly aware of the copious amounts of saliva in his mouth as his hands drop down to the floor. 

Mike is sleeping a fitful sleep and he doesn't know why. In his dream, he's sitting on a dark floor in some dark sort of space. He's very aware that he's not awake, but he knows he isn't dreaming either. As he looks around the space, the feeling of looming danger creeps up upon him and he turns around and sees a creature running to him on hands and feet, two long tongues hanging out of its grinning mouth, dragging across the floor. 

He scrambles backwards, trying to put space between him and the creature, but a bright light crashed into it and the two clash. Mike watches in a daze as both of them wrestle with each other, but then the creature slams the light down and underneath its claws, it grows dimmer and dimmer. 

That visual makes something in him snap and Mike shoots up, knowing that Ike is in danger. His fears are confirmed within an instant and he leaps to his feet, planning to knock the thing out. His fist goes right through it and before it completely dissolves into thin air, it grins and claws Mike's face. "Wrong too", it brings out and vanishes. 

He doesn't spend any more time thinking about the creature and kneels down at Ike's side. "Ike, Ike say something man." He gently places Ike's head on his lap and checks for breathing and a pulse. Both are there, but his brother is completely out. "Dad!" he yells as he clings to his unconscious brother. The scream comes out of his throat as a loud sob. "Please help!"

JoJo wakes up feeling quite ill. They're still sweating from a bad dream they can't seem to remember and as they sit down at their desk to write down their feelings in their dream journal, they notice a book on their desk that hadn't been there before. The purple notebook glistens in the light of the morning sun and as JoJo opens it, they get greeted by familiar symbols. "Hey ma!" they scream and Maria answers with a: "Yeah honey?"

"The other one!" JoJo groans and Louisa stomps up the stairs. As she comes through the door, JoJo skims through the book. "Look, you left one of your witch books in here", they say and Louisa indignantly puts her hands on her hips. "It's called a grimoire kid, how many times do I have to tell you that?"

She frowns as she sees the purple book in JoJo's hands. "That's not mine kiddo, I've never seen that thing before." JoJo stops their skimming and open the book on a random page. "What? But it has all the witchy stuff! Look here's a drawing of some sort of monster. Lemme read what it says." They bring the book extremely close to their face as they try to decipher the handwriting. "Ya-yo...You? You...are neft. Next. You are next." Immediately after they voice the sentence, the book drops out of their hands and they tumble to the floor. 

As soon as she sees her kid on the floor, Louisa separates JoJo and the book and lays the quartz that's always in her pocket on the book. The white stone cracks almost immediately, but Louisa has more pressing things to worry about. JoJo's eyes are still open and the emptiness inside them worries her. "JoJo De La Guerra, are you there?" she asks in a clear tone and for a moment she gets no answer. But then the fog disappears from JoJo's gaze and they whisper: "No...this is Patrick."  
She hugs her kid and presses a kiss on their hair. "Get ready for school, you crazy kid." When JoJo leaves for school, she decides to get rid of that grimoire. However she can't find it, no matter how hard she searches.

After school, Crutchie and Jack find themselves at the demon's den again. Crutchie watches with amusement as Jack struggles to bring his easel and canvases inside the house and suppresses his laughter. Jack glares at him. "Look, this house is big and the lake looks nice. I'm gonna paint a lot and no one's gonna be able to stop me."

"I bet I could if I wanted to." Jack jumps a few feet into the air and shrieks, as Crutchie gives David a friendly smile and a wave. "Hello Davey, how're ya holding up?" The guy looks slightly worse for wear, with eye bags a concerning shade of blue and he holds his arm at an awkward angle. Even though he looks...godawful to be honest, he smiles softly at them and beckons them inside. "I'm quite well, thank you for asking Crutchie. How are you?" Crutchie hums and taps on the floor with his crutch. "I'm fine, but school's sucking the life right outta me." David doesn't react to the joke like Jack thought he would. His shoulders sag and he seems more tired than ever. "That isn't fun."

Before the atmosphere can go from uncomfortable to downright sour, Jack points at his painting materials. "Hey Davey, you know any good places to paint in this house?" David considers the question for a moment and then he nods. "Yeah, but it's all the way up." He turns to Crutchie. "Can you manage that? We've got no secret elevators." Crutchie laughs freely and flexes. Once in a while, Jack gets brutally reminded of how fucking ripped Crutchie is and every time he thanks god for it. "I'll get there eventually bud, don't worry." With his eyes glued to Crutchie's arm, David nods. "Uhm...yeah...that's good." Jack isn't sure whether David's talking about Crutchie's ability to help himself or his rather impressive arms. Whichever it is, Jack agrees wholeheartedly.

As Jack sets up his easel in front of the window in the attic bedroom, where he has a fantastic view of the lake, willow and surrounding woods. While he improvises his painting studio, Crutchie lays down in the bed and falls asleep with his earbuds still in. With a fond smile, Jack removes them so Crutchie doesn't strangle himself in his sleep and tucks him in. 

"You've got some serious motherly tendencies right there", David teases softly and Jack plucks a hoodie out of his backpack. "Yep", he says and tries to tug the thing over David's head. "What are you doing?" the boy asks and tilts his head in confusion. "Shhh, just go along", Jack shushes him and places his finger on David's lips to shut him up. David's eyes travel from the finger on his lips over Jack's face up to his eyes. Before it can turn into a full blown staring match, Jack pulls the hoodie over David's head.

Thankfully, the hoodie isn't too small for David. Jack always has to buy his sweaters a few sizes bigger to fit his shoulders into them and he likes big, comfy clothes. Liking big, comfy clothes is actually the main reason why he buys oversized clothing. Race calls him a drowning rat whenever he puts on one of his oversized hoodies, but Race is a dumbass who isn't able to appreciate the feeling of being hugged by clothes. 

"So...Why am I wearing your clothes?" David asks and Jack softly pushes him unto the bed, right next to Crutchie. "You need sleep and comfort. I'm providing it." David moves to get out of the bed again, but Crutchie has already taken to clinging to David like a koala, leaving him unable to move. "Sorry Davey, looks like you're stuck now." David pouts and Jack runs his hand through David's dark curls. It makes David's eyes droop and unconsciously he shifts closer to Jack. "Sleep", Jack whispers and David closes his eyes.

For a while, Jack keeps carding his fingers through David's hair, until his breathing evens out and he's sure that he's asleep. Then he carefully removes himself from the two sleeping boys and sits down in front of his easel. He contemplates painting the lake, but decides to do something else first. 

After some rummaging through his backpack, he finds his sketchbook and makes a few sketches of the sleeping boys and one of the room they're in. It's weird how ridiculously easy it is to put both the room and David on paper. Usually he needs to gain more of a 'feel' of things and sketch them multiple times before he can render his subjects nicely, but he barely needs to look at the room or David. It's as though his fingers remember them, but his mind doesn't.

The same thing happens while he's painting the lake. His mind is stuck between thinking too much and thinking nothing at all while he's painting and it's terrible for his concentration. He has barely looked at the lake and yet it's right there on his canvas. For some reason, he used warm reds and bright greens instead of the cold, blue hues he sees when he looks out of the window. The painting conveys a familiarity Jack doesn't personally feel.

As he stares at his own painting in confusion, he hears a whimper from outside the door. "Hello?" he calls out and involuntary tightens the grip on his brush. "Please , help! I'm stuck!" The voice on the other side of the door sounds panicked and Jack's mother hen instincts kick in. "I'm coming!" He yells back. "Just stay where you are!"

As he makes his way to the door, David wakes up with his hair messier than before. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes he asks: "Who's there?" The question makes Jack stop dead in his tracks and he stares at the door. Only now he realises that he doesn't recognise the other voice at all, although it sounds strangely familiar. "I've got no idea", he admits. 

Immediately David goes from half asleep to alert. "Jack, stay here. I'll go check it out. Don't leave this room, it's the safest in the house." He leaves the room through a secret passageway before Jack can protest.

The only thing that Jack can hear, is Crutchie's soft breathing. There's no sign of David or the other person and Jack wonders if it may have been one of the ghosts Romeo had been talking about. Although Romeo had said that the ghosts mostly aren't harmful, he can't help but feel that there was something seriously wrong with the voice at the other side of the door. Suddenly, it hits him. The voice was undoubtedly David's, although a garbled and butchered version of it. But David had been sleeping inside the room, practically beside Jack.

Pacing around the room, Jack debates whether he should go look for David or not. It's been fifteen minutes since he's last seen the guy and he's starting to worry. "Jack, where did Davey go?" Crutchie's sleepy voice makes Jack stop his pacing and with a pathetic groan he flops down onto the bed. "Alright, alright", Crutchie says as he pats Jack's head in a comforting manner. "Tell uncle Crutchie what's up."

"There was someone screaming for help and Davey's gone to check it out. He told me to stay here because it was safer. What are you doing?" Jack draws his brows together in confusion as Crutchie swings his legs over the edge of the bed and grabs his crutch. He shoots Jack a grin and pulls him up by his arm. "Fuck the system. Let's go find Davey!" 

At the top of the stairs Crutchie throws back his head and groans loudly. "Jack. Why didn't people in the seventeenth century build elevators into their homes? Or ya know, me-friendly stairs. Seventeenth century people were ableist fucks. You know what-" With disbelief Jack and Crutchie watch as the staircase smoothens out and becomes a ramp. The ramp isn't steep at all and looks easy to walk on. It's as though the house rearranged itself to fit it in. After a moment of silence Crutchie speaks up. "Well would'ya look at that. I was planning to let you carry me, but this'll do just fine." As Jack purses his lips together, mildly offended, Crutchie laughs and flicks his nose. "Come on Jack, we've got a person to find!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hurrrrrrr exams are coming up. I’ve finished next week’s chapter, but idk for the week after that guys. Anyways, point out my spelling mistakes if you want and if you’d like to scream to me about noosies or fucking exams my tumblr is Rivertellsstories :)


	6. Jack and Crutchie have friendly conversations with the walls.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Crutchie who hits the nail right in the head. "You don't want us to leave, but we have to. It's dangerous for us to stay, but only now." The lights flicker enthusiastically and Crutchie claps with his hand against the wall. "Crutchie, what are you doing?" 
> 
> "I figured the house would appreciate a high five."

David takes a deep breath as he navigates himself through the house. With his eyes closed, he searches for him. He knows he's fucking with him, knows he is playing him like a damn fiddle, but the fact that he's actually able to, is most worrying. Around him the walls constantly rearrange themselves, forming new corridors and rooms but he ignores them until a wall materializes right in front of him and on his right side, the wall opens up and reveals a cozy looking room. 

It's filled with more pillows than he can count and the sight of it makes him smile. "Thank you Leah, but you and I both know that hiding isn't an option when he wants to play." The entire house creaks, signaling it has definitely heard him, but the door opens a little bit further anyway. The house's protectiveness fills David with warmth, but he doesn't have the time to dwell on it. He'd rather find him, than be found by him. The wall disappears and David before he continues his quest, he asks the house to lead Crutchie and Jack out. What's coming isn't pretty and he'd rather spare them the sight.

As Jack and Crutchie make their way down the ramp, the place starts changing again and Crutchie halts Jack by holding an arm in front of him. "I think it's better to wait until it's done changing. We might get stuck in a wall otherwise." As the room slows down again, there's only one way to get off the ramp. The left, right and back have been blocked by walls and Jack recognizes the door in before them as the front door. 

"I take it we've got to go?" Jack utters and the entire wall with the door in moves up and down, as though it's nodding. "But it isn't even sundown yet", he says and tries to not sound too disappointed. The wall drops and Jack tries to read its facial expressions. It's kind of hard because it doesn't exactly have a face, but when the lights dim a bit, Crutchie catches onto what the house is trying to say. "It worries you", he states and the lights return to their previous brightness.

"What can we do?" Jack asks, determined to help even though he has no idea what's going on. The door swings open and Jack and Crutchie peer outside in confusion. "There's nothing there." They look at each other and Crutchie shrugs. "Maybe the house is a bit confused."

Jack screeches as something touches his back while Crutchie calmly turns around. The wall behind them moves slowly forward, pushing them towards the door and right in front of it, it stops moving. It's then that it clicks for Jack. "You want us to leave." The lights flicker and Jack has the feeling that he's thinking in the right direction, but hasn't said the exact thing the house means. 

It's Crutchie who hits the nail right in the head. "You don't want us to leave, but we have to. It's dangerous for us to stay, but only now." The lights flicker enthusiastically and Crutchie claps with his hand against the wall. "Crutchie, what are you doing?" 

"I figured the house would appreciate a high five." Jack covers up a giggle by bidding the house farewell. "Bye bye demon's den. You're a bit wacky, but I think it's swell. See ya tomorrow!" Crutchie keeps waving at the house until it's entirely out of sight.

The last thing Leah had told him, was that both Crutchie and Jack exited the house safely and after that message, her presence had disappeared completely? Nowhere in the now cold walls of the house can he find her and he knows that he's on his own now. Well, not completely on his own, but he thinks he would appreciate it more than the Red Lady who keeps pestering him.

"David dear, take off that godawful hoodie, would you? It's not becoming of you." She sounds so awfully ingenuine and patronizing. If he could, he'd make her leave the house, but there's not a lot you can do against a ghost who's stuck to a house. Some time ago, he probably could've exorcised her without batting an eye, but right now, he doesn't have that kind of power anymore. 

"Your hair is kind of shabby over here", she says while tugging harshly on the curls at the nape of his neck and he tries to ignore her at all cost. "Fine, be that way. Maybe I should talk to those other boys, they seem nicer than you." Fully knowing that she's baiting him, he stops and gives her a glare. "Leave them alone."

"Boo, you're stingy", she drawls, "share your new friends with us, Davey. We're bored too you know? That Crutch boy? Friendly enough, do you think he'd be up to any games? I'd be funny to watch him crawl-" With the tiniest bit of magic, he draws a sigil on her upper arm. Barely any thought and furious intention combine themselves and with a high wail, she pulls back from him. With flaming eyes she spits out: "It's no wonder you're alone. I certainly wouldn't stay around you if I had the choice."

"Then leave", he brings out between gritted teeth and as they stare each other down. The air hums with magic and David thinks, no hopes it'll come to an explosion. Some part of him yearns for confrontation with the woman who has been pestering him for two years. But as she turns up her nose and comes floating closer again, he knows it's not for today.

"David, you and me, we're stuck with each other for a little while. But, don't worry we'll part ways soon. Though it won't be me who's leaving." David's eyes darken and before he can retaliate, she waves it off. "Come now David, we both know it's inevitable. Make the most of the time you've got left, I'd say." 

He hates her, deeply so, but she's the liveliest and most talkative spirit in the house and she's all he's had for two years. The sudden arrival of a rowdy group of teens isn't going to change the fact that she's the only person he could talk to when the longing for companionship got the better of him. Even now, the almost desperate craving for someone to talk to wins over his hatred and he speaks to her.

"I shouldn't get them involved." Although he says that, he can't help but want to involve them. He wants friends, wants to talk to people who aren't dead yet, wants to know what has happened outside the house for the past two years, wants... Of course he also has other wishes, but they are so unattainable that he shouldn't even voice them. 

Hanging with those teenagers will only increase his hope for his deepest wish to come true and he knows that he would not be able to survive the disappointment that would certainly follow. He needs someone to crush his budding hope and as he looks at the Lady in red, he knows that at least one of his wishes will come true.

"You are right, dear. It would be utterly selfish of you. Endangering innocent teens because you think us ghosts aren't good enough for you? Dear child, how selfish can you get?" He shoves his hands in his pockets and looks away. "I won't let them in next time", he mumbles and the Red Lady sighs impatiently. "It's too late for that, dumb child. You should've scared them off the very first day. Do you have any idea what you've unleashed unto those poor children?" 

When he doesn't answer, she forcefully grabs his chin and looks him in the eye. "Where is your grimoire, David?" As his eyes widen in realization, she lets him go and pushes him backwards. As David stumbles to the floor, she brushes a red strand of hair behind her ear and looks down on him. "It has chosen a new owner. You know what that means darling."

"Also David", she pauses and smiles with pure joy. He doesn't like that expression on her face, because it usually means bad news for him. "Yes?" He tries to not sound too skeptical, but as he feels claws getting jammed into his ribcage, mercilessly piercing through his flesh, he knows he should've paid more attention to his surroundings. 

As he gets absolutely bludgeoned and blood stains the plush carpet underneath him, he catches the high sound of the Red Lady's utterly amused laughter. He hates her, but it's still nice that there's someone there. "You've been found, darling." G-d help him, the sun hasn't even gone down yet.

Katherine Pulitzer stares at the locked door in front of her and debates whether she should kick it in or not. Jack had told her that he would be here after school, but she has rung the bell several times and knocked and yelled loudly, yet no one had come to open the door. 

Kath: Where are you? Been yelling at a closed door for half an hour now.

After she sends Jack the message, she spots an open window and decides to let herself in through that. Without any difficulties she smoothly gets inside and lays eyes on what seems to be the living room. Her phone vibrates in her pocket and as she reads the message, the window slams shut behind her.

Jack-o'-lantern: Me 'nd Crutchie left like an hour ago? U should go home.

CutestKath: Lol, my entryway closed itself. I'm going exploring boy!

The last message doesn't get send, but Katherine shrugs it off. She's close to the woods, there's a big chance that the reception is a bit wonky over here. She walks further into the living room and smiles when she sees traces of different newsies all over the place. There's enough ingredients to make a few five course meals (Henry's stuff, no doubt), a stray slingshot (one of Finch's. Sniper has slingshots too, but she doesn't carve F's into them), a sewing kit (hello there, Buttons), a prayer rug (also Buttons') and Specs' shoes. 

She pauses for a moment and picks up the pointes from the floor and puts them in her backpack. For someone who's very eager to break gender rules in the world of dancing (without injuring himself though, luckily for him, his ankles can actually take pointe work), he forgets his materials more often than not. 

Wandering through the house, she wonders if she'll meet the David Jack keeps talking about. A teenager living on his own is worrisome enough, but as soon as Jack mentioned 'Davey' she can't shake the feeling that she's heard the name before. Almost immediately she associated the name with the smell of coffee way too late in the evening, black ink in a messy handwriting and strangely enough, Sarah. The harder she thinks about it, the more the fragments of David disappear.

As she enters the hallway, she stumbles over something and lands against the staircase. "Fuck!" she yells and when she notices what she tripped over, she whispers a quiet: "Oh fuck."

The other teenager is laying on his stomach, face downturned and despite the torn state it's in and the gruesome red stains on it, she recognizes the hoodie he's wearing as Jacks. Carefully she kneels down beside him and with shaking fingers, she reaches for his wrist. His cold skin makes her fear the worst as does the absence of a pulse. 'He's dead', she thinks until his fingers softly grab her own wrist. The grip is weak, but she lets out a breath she wasn't ware she was holding. "I'm going to turn you around, is that alright?" she asks and his grip tightens the tiniest bit and looses again. Katherine takes that as a yes.

Ever so slowly, she grabs his shoulders and turns him around. His hand drops weakly back to the floor and as he lays there unmoving, she fears that the movement might've been too much for him. But then he manages to open his eyes and tries to get up.

"Easy there", she remarks and moves to support his back. As something warm and wet touches her arm, she looks down at his torso. There are horrid scratches, stretching all over his ribcage. "Do you think you can make it to the kitchen? That needs bandaging." He looks doubtful, but tries to stand up on his own anyway. His knees buckle and immediately, Katherine has one of his arms over her shoulder as she hooks her own arm underneath his armpit. "I meant with help, dumbass." 

The comment draws a breathy laugh from his lips and immediately after, he clutches his torso. "Ugh, that hurts." Katherine clicks her tongue in sympathy and manoeuvres him unto the couch in the living room. "Stay here, I'll get some water and towels from the kitchen." 

As Katherine is filling a bowl with water, cold fingers wrap themselves around her wrist and thirteen years of self-defence classes kick into gear. Swiftly she delivers a quick jab to her attacker's solar plexus and raises the bowl in her hand to bash it to the side of his head. Luckily enough for Jack Kelly, she does not do that. Instead she calmly puts it on the kitchen counter, while Jack groans. "Jesus Christ woman, what was that for?"

"Valentine's day when we were still a couple."

"Look, I thought we weren't going to bring that up again. Also, don't act like our anniversary never happened, you know what you did."

"That's fair."

"Here take these." She presses a bunch of towels in his hands. "What are we doing?" He asks and follows her to the living. As they approach the room they hear a woman's voice talking and both of them stop to listen. "It's awfully rude to spy on people", Katherine remarks and Jack nods. "We totally shouldn't do it", he agrees but neither of them moves. They quickly exchange glances, spit in their hands and shake their hands.

"We're gonna listen anyway, aren't we?"

"Oh absolutely. Let's look too."

Katherine and Jack peek around the corner and watch as a ginger lady dressed in a red dress talks to David.

"I'm disappointed you know. The carpet's ruined thanks to your blood."

The sarcasm drips from David's voice as he answers. "Oh, I'm awfully sorry about bleeding all over the carpet. I thought for sure that you'd appreciate the red, since you've got the whole aesthetic going on. I'll stop bleeding right now." 

"I hate you, boy." 

"The feeling's absolutely mutual, Madam."

The lady sits down on the sofa and slowly drags her fingers over David's wounds. "David, David, you keep making everything harder. That poor girl had to drag you all across the hallway, because your sorry ass couldn't be bothered to get up. The sun has gone down by now and the house won't let anyone out until sunrise, you know that. You made her lose time and now you ruined her chance of getting out. The poor lamb is going to die because of you, darling."

Jack can't keep quiet anymore and casually enters the room. "No one's gonna die tonight, Miss walking period."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya, I’m in the midst of exam week rn, but my chapter for next Saturday has already been written, so no worries there. Anyway, please point out my mistakes and hit me up on Tumblr if you’d like (rivertellsstories).


	7. Chapter 7: Miss walking period gets angry + the infamous 24h challenge. Are Albert and Kath real gingers? Find the answer right here! Absolutely click bait!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You know, usually I can't hate gingers. People of a near extinct race got to stick together and that's why Albert and I have this", Katherine clenches her fist, "Deep and special understanding of each other. Ginger solidarity, you know. But I can't help but heavily dislike that bitch."

It’s quiet until David starts laughing. “Miss walking period? That’s perfect, Jack.” Then his eyes widen in realization. “Jack? You should’ve left an hour ago!” Since Jack can’t come up with any explanations, Katherine pops around the corner too. “He probably followed me here because he was worried. He’s sweet and dumb like that.” David nods. “Yeah, he seems like the type.”  
"I've got the feeling you guys are insulting me and I don't like it. Also Davey, why do you look like you got stuck underneath a lawnmower?" Jack throws the towels on the coffee table, sits down next to David and takes the bowl with water from Katherine. He tugs at the hoodie. "You gotta take this off Dave." Grinning, David wiggles his eyebrows. "You sure move fast, Jackie." 

"Oh my god", Katherine breathes and face palms. "Get a room." The Red Lady looks down at the two boys and singles out David in particular. "Enjoy your little 'adventure' while you can darling. It isn't going to last long." She vanishes after those words and Jack hisses at the space she'd been in. "What's her deal?"

"You know, usually I can't hate gingers. People of a near extinct race got to stick together and that's why Albert and I have this", Katherine clenches her fist, "Deep and special understanding of each other. Ginger solidarity, you know. But I can't help but heavily dislike that bitch." 

"Like that means anything. Neither you nor Albert are real gingers anyway." 

"What the fuck Jack?" Katherine stares at Jack in utter amazement at the randomness of that statement. "Where did you get that idea?"

"Race told me that Albert's true hair colour. It's why he always wears caps, beanies and hoods. To hide his roots. Smalls told me that you actually have blond hair."

"Jack Kelly, why would you think that's true?" 

"Race never lies when it comes to Albert and Smalls wouldn't lie to me."

"Your adoration for your siblings is both adorable and incredibly stupid."

David listens to the fast paced conversation with interest. "I don't know whether you guys are about to fight or kiss", he announces and Katherine doesn't hesitate to tell him that they're way past the kissing phase. He gives them a weird look. "But you guys are so young? Anyway, mazel tov?"

Katherine has definitely heard that phrase before. It takes a while, but when it hits her, she shoves David's shoulder. "We aren't getting married, dipshit. We broke up." Realisation dawns on his face and he smiles sheepishly. "Yeah, that makes more sense."

Above their heads, the sound of footsteps dragging slowly over the floor can be heard and the three of them peer at the ceiling. David gets up, wounds still untreated. "I have to get you guys out before he comes downstairs." The footsteps stop and David's whole body seizes up as he frantically scans the room. 

"Davey, what's going on?" The boy doesn't answer but closes his eyes. After he has opened them again, he seems to be more nervous than before. "He's downstairs. We've got to go up, to my room. It's safer there. Give me your hands." He holds out his own hands and neither Jack nor Katherine takes one. "Please, I'll explain later. We don't have much time." His voice sounds like he's begging and his eyes are filled with desperation. Jack caves and places his hand in David. "I'm trusting ya here, Dave." David's eyes soften and Katherine grabs his other hand. "Take a deep breath in and out", David instructs.

As they breath out again, they're in the hallway on the first floor. White as a sheet, David lets go of their hands and sags to the floor. Before he can make contact with the ground, both Jack and Katherine have caught him. "Attic bedroom", he wheezes, "Go." The 'and leave me here' isn't voiced, but rather heavily implied. Jack opens his mouth to answer, but the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs cuts him of and David's already heavy breathing turns frantic.

The three of them watch as something approaches them. There's no good way to describe it, as its appearance constantly changes. Jack sees women in Victorian clothing, men with majestic beards, a young man in jeans and flip flops. All of them seem to be crammed in one, shadowy body that contorts the whole time to fit all the different people. All of them reach out, eyes wide and desperate and mouths opened in soundless screams, while the skin on the shadowy figure stretches unnaturally over the bones. 

Numbed by fear, neither Jack nor Katherine moves as it inches closer. It opens its mouth by grabbing its lower lip and pulling it down, revealing a vertical row of teeth and a horizontal row that seems to grow straight out of its gums. Then it bites down on Jack's arm and Jack screams as he feels the teeth whirl around in its mouth, digging into his flesh.

David slams a purple glowing hand into its face and as some sort of characters write themselves on its body, it screams with the voices of multiple people and Jack pulls his arm free. "Go to my bedroom and stay there! Never open the door for anybody, not even me, got it? I can open the door by myself!" Although Jack fears for his dear life, he hesitates and David turns to Katherine. "Go, I can handle this. You're in the way." Katherine bites her lip, but then she squares up and pulls Jack along. "Do what you have to do!" she yells over her shoulder. "And don't you dare to die!"

An hour has gone by and still no trace of David. Impatiently, Jack paces around the room, a piece of cloth wrapped around his arm. "We've gotta help him." Arms crossed, Katherine leans against the desk. "Unless you've got magical glowing hands, I say we stake it out. I'm not going to say that he's going to come out unscathed, but he's more capable of handling this situation than we are."

"Kath, have you seen the guy?" Jack seethes. "He could barely stand after transporting us. There's no good outcome for him in that fight." His tone is angry, but Katherine recognizes the worry underneath the anger and wraps her arms around him. With a soft voice, she tries to calm him down. "C'mon Jack, have faith in him. We can't do more for him right now."

"I hate that." His voice is barely louder than a whisper as he drops his head on her shoulder. "I'm scared, Kathy. For you, me and him the most." She swallows down her own fears and worries. "I know. Let's spare him some good thoughts." 

After Katherine says those words, a young woman materializes on the desk. She doesn't seem to be older than twenty, with a curly red bob and warm brown eyes. She radiates kindness and for some reason, she feels familiar to Jack. Without saying anything, she offers them her hands. 

When neither of them moves to grab her them, she gently reaches out herself. As she takes their hands in her own, she closes her eyes and a tender warmth engulfs both Katherine and Jack. It's as though they gain extra senses. Jack can see the whole house, although he doesn't exactly see people or things. Instead he sees auras, colours, shapes he didn't even know existed and wonders if this is what Romeo sees on a daily basis.

The redheaded woman steers their gazes until they find David. Now, Jack can see with Romeo means with David's 'washed out' aura. It's worrisome how bleak it looks and concern bleeds through Jack's whole being. Katherine spares him a glance and he feels her. 

Worry, fear, peacefulness it's all there. The kind looking woman gives both of their hands a squeeze and without conversation, they both know what to she means. They reach out to David, grab him. Jack doesn't physically grab David, but he knows that if he and Katherine pull now, he'll come along, so that's exactly what they do.

Jack, Katherine and David pant as they lay on the floor in David's bedroom. The woman is nowhere to be found, but Jack shoots her a 'thank you' in his mind anyway. A gentle red light boops his nose and then her presence vanishes. Then he hears Katherine gasp loudly and turns around. 

There are fucking teeth marks all over the scratches on David's torso. "I suppose you don't have any disinfectant in here?" Katherine is trying to distract herself from all the crazy shit that's happening, so Jack allows her to fuss over David without overwhelming the guy with his own questions. "In the desk, top right drawer." 

David tries to take of the hoodie and his shirt underneath, but he stops as he feels the fibres tangled in his dried blood and groans in pain. "I'll cut around the wounds and Jack, you have to lift the clothes off." Jack nods at Katherine's instructions and scoots closer. When Katherine has finished her part of the deal, he slips his hands underneath the clothes and lifts them a bit, so they aren't pressing down on his body any more. "Lift your arms, Davey." David complies and slowly but surely the clothes come off without hurting him too much. 'Now comes the hard part', Jack thinks as he watches the remnants of clothing that got stuck in David's wounds. 

"Jack, give me your belt", Katherine commands and he obeys without question. She folds the it in two and gestures at David's mouth. "Open up, Davey." 

"This is going to hurt a lot, isn't it?" Katherine doesn't beat around the bush. "Indeed. Bite, boy. Jack, hold him down while I'm working." David leans into Jack's chest and Jack can feel him shaking. "It's gonna be ok", Jack promises and nuzzles into David's curls. "Me and Kath make one hell of a team you know? She does the thinking and the hard work while I cheer her on."

David huffs through his nose in amusement, but amusement quickly turns into pain as Katherine dumps the alcohol on his wounds and groans, although muffled by the belt, sound godawful. Jack doesn't really have to restrain him, until Katherine starts picking out threads with tweezers she's found somewhere in the desk. 

Jack is sure that David screamed and the boy wants to move away from Katherine, but Jack's grip on him doesn't allow it. "Davey, the less you move, the quicker this'll all be over." As Katherine works with shaking hands and a sweaty forehead, David digs his nail into Jack's thighs and Jack tries to distract him by babbling nonsense to him. 

Finally Katherine draws back and in a tired voice she announces: "Done. You got any bandages? Or am I using one of your old shirts?" David removes the belt from between his teeth. "Leave it like that. If we're going to put anything on it, my skin will grow through and intertwine itself with it." 

"You'll bleed to death." David shakes his head and gives her what could be considered a weak grin. "No, I won't. I heal fast. Trust me, I've got experience." He gives her finger guns after it, but Katherine stares in horror. "Experience? How many times has this happened to you?" 

"Eh, it's a nightly activity. The whole find or be found thing usually starts after sundown until sunrise, but lately it's been starting earlier and earlier." Outside the room, Jack hears a familiar ticking noise on the floor. "What's that?" The three of them wait in silence until Jack identifies the sound. "That's how Crutchie sounds when he walks. Footstep, then a tick because of his crutch." 

"Jack? Davey?" Crutchie'svoice is tinged with nervousness and fear. "Guys, are you somewhere here?" Thenthe thumping footsteps of a running person can be heard, a terrified scream followsand gets cut off by the thud of a body slamming into the floor. 

That last thing is what makes Jack snap and he stands up and before he can reach the door, David pulls him back. "Let go of me!" Jack tries to wrestle himself free, but David reaches for Jack's back pocket and takes out his phone. "Call him. That outside the door? Not Crutchie." 

The screaming outside makes Jack's skin crawl, but David's suggestion is logical. He takes his phone, slams the call button and while he waits for Crutchie to pick up, David places himself in front of the door, barricading it. "Pick up, pick up, pick up", Jack hisses and he sighs in relief when Crutchie does.

"The artist formerly known as Francis Fucking Malcolm Sullivan, what the fuck do you want? It's ass o'clock in the morning and I swear to God, if we weren't best friends I would have skinned you and used your skin as padding for my crutch." 

"Good morning, my favourite little man."

"Fuck off." Crutchie hangs up. "Yeah, Crutchie's all right." Disbelieving, Katherine shakes her head. "No way that that's Crutchie. Crutchie doesn't curse." Jack snorts at that. "Katherine, why do you think we never wake up Crutchie before ten at our sleepovers? He's a menace in the morning."

"Francis Malcolm Sullivan? That's one ugly ass name." Jack agrees with David. "That's why I changed it. Well, that and other reasons, but I don't want to talk about it." David gives him a thumbs up. "Sure."

"What are we going to do now?" Katherine starts tidying the desk, in an attempt to calm her nerves. "Wait until sunrise. Usually he rests during the day, but the rules are changing. You guys can try to sleep until then, but I'm going to stay awake." 

"I want to sleep, we've got school tomorrow." Katherine yawns and lays down on the bed. "Jack, Dave, get in here, it's fucking freezing." 

"Hi", David whispers from Katherine's right side. "Hi", Jack whispers back from the left and they both start giggling. "Is this what sleepovers are like?" Jack considers it for a moment. Scary stuff? Check. Talking when you're supposed to be asleep? Check. Whispering in extremely loud whisper-voices? Check. "We're only missing the making out and gossiping", Jack concludes and David oohs."We could do that."

"What?"

"Gossiping", David blurts out. "Yeah, gossiping. That's totally what I meant. We could gossip. I don't know any gossip though, but I'm very good at listening." 

"Damn man, I thought you'd share some juicy ghost tea with me."

David laughs softly, but his eyes are far away. "I wish I could. No one here tells me anything. Sure, we talk, but we never exchange information. The only who gives me tips once in a while is the Red Lady, in the form of insults that she hurls at my head."

"Can we help?" David looks impossibly gentle in the light of the moon, looking at Jack like he's something precious. "You're a kind person, Jack Kelly." Jack doesn't let go of his gaze. "That's not an answer to my question, Dave."

"Looking at the big picture, no, you can't save me. But for now, tell me a story? Something about your family or friends, if you don't mind?"

"Why?" 

"Can't remember mine. Can't remember anything, to be honest."

"Oh." Jack doesn't really know how to answer that. He very carefully rolls Katherine over so she's on the left and he's in the middle. He wraps one arm around David, tangles their legs together and draws David into his chest. "You are a very tactile person."

"Yep, I'm touchy with all of my friends. If it makes you uncomfortable, I'll stop." David scoots a little closer. "No, it's fine. Also, we are friends?" 

"Davey, you don't break into someone's house, make their bedroom your painting studio, get chased by something together and get stuck in their house till sunrise, without becoming at least besties." David chuckles.

"I've got three siblings. Race, who's sixteen, Romeo, fifteen and Smalls, fourteen. Fun fact about Smalls, she's getting taller than Romeo. He hates it. All four of us are adopted by our amazing mother, miss Medda Larkin."

David frowns at the mention of the name. "Kitchen duets", he says with an expressionless face. "What?" David shakes his head. "I don't know. My mind just went 'kitchen duets' when you said her name." Jack ponders about it for a moment. "I think we did that when all of us were younger. I don't know why we stopped though." Both of them shrug it off and Jack continues talking about his family while tracing figures on David's back.

 

"Race joined the family when I was six. We found him in a garbage can, living there like the little trash goblin he is. Nah, just kidding. We met him because he stole ma's purse and ran off. The police got involved, they couldn't find any trace of his existence anywhere and Race wouldn't tell them where he came from. Mom went "That's all nice and cool, when can I adopt him?" The cops thought she'd gone crazy but she all my mom saw was a parentless child."

"Your mom sure is something huh?"

"There aren't enough words in this world to describe her. She's the best. Anyway, she managed to adopt him. At first he was perpetually angry, then he met Albert and decided that it was way more fun to tease angry people than to be one himself. So he decided to bother Albert as much as he could and now they're always involved in dumbassery together. Racer also wants to be a dancer and he's the absolute best at it, but I might be slightly biased. The kid's also a freaking genius, but he does fucking stupid shit because he thinks it's hilarious." 

Jack takes a deep breath and continues. "Next up is Romeo, a gem of a kid. Medda followed the normal adoption process for him and he was probably seven when he came to live with us. There were no official documents for him either so that's why we don't know his exact age. He'd been passed around the foster system for his whole life. It's strange to think back to the first year of him staying with us, because he was so quiet. In the present I can't put Romeo and quiet in the same sentence unless there's a negation in it as well. He's always singing and dancing around and he wants to be a Broadway star more than anything. If you want to find him, you just have to scream the lyrics of Seasons of Love at the top of your lungs and he'll come running. He also admires the fuck outta Race and if you want Race to see Race at his most responsible, you've got to see him around Romeo."

"The youngest and also the only daughter in our family, is my little sister Smalls. Medda was actually in a group home to finish up Romeo's process and Smalls, six years old at the time, walked up to her and said: "Adopt me." So she did. In the beginning, Race and Smalls had so many bitch fights, it was horrible. But after a while they teamed up to prank the other members of the household and my life has been a living hell ever since. Smalls doesn't have any plans for the future yet and she changes hobbies every year. I'm sure that helped her develop a wide array of skills. Smalls is a jack of all trades and master of none. It's really cool what that girl can do."

"You really love them, don't you?"

"Sure do. And I make sure that they know it too. I'm the embarrassing big brother." 

"That's lovely." There's no sarcasm in David's voice, only soft admiration. The words "You're lovely", lay on Jack's lips, but he doesn't let them fall. And lovely he is, eyes an electrifying blue in the dim light of the moon. David's eyes always seem to change colour and Jack wonders if it's a side effect of his magic. The wounds on his chest have healed already, but they still left jagged scars. Jack cards his fingers through David's hair and traces David's scars with his other hand. The boy closes those magnificent eyes and sighs in delight. Before he can do something stupid, Jack swallows the lump in his throat. "We should sleep too. You said that this room was a safe space, right?"

David nods and curls into Jack's chest. "Good night, Jackie."

"Good night...love Davey." Leave it to Jack Kelly to fall in love hard and fast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y’all, hit me up on tumblr if you’d like (rivertellsstories). I occasionally make newsies shitposts over there.


	8. Special Edition Specs Sweat™️

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A gentle beam of sunlight wakes Katherine up and as she sits up, the memories of the previous day return. Her eyebrows knit together in confusion as she observes that she's not in the middle of the bed any more. She has to suppress a smile as she lays eyes upon the entwined mess of limbs that are David and Jack. Her wristwatch informs her that there is a tiny chance of arriving at school on time if she leaves in about five minutes, so she decides to wake up Jack as well. "Get up losers, we're going to school!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Sketch dis is 4 u

A gentle beam of sunlight wakes Katherine up and as she sits up, the memories of the previous day return. Her eyebrows knit together in confusion as she observes that she's not in the middle of the bed any more. She has to suppress a smile as she lays eyes upon the entwined mess of limbs that are David and Jack. Her wristwatch informs her that there is a tiny chance of arriving at school on time if she leaves in about five minutes, so she decides to wake up Jack as well. "Get up losers, we're going to school!"

When they leave the bedroom they notice three deep scratches on the door. David lets his fingers trail over them and quickly pulls them back, as though they've burned him. "This house is getting less and less safe." They don't spare each other any other words as they travel to the front door. Right before he leaves, Jack turns around. "Davey, if this place is so unsafe, why don't you leave?"

"I can't", he answers and Jack scowls. "That's bullshit. It's just a house." Jack pulls David through the door by his shoulder and before he can reach the outside, David seems to walk into a wall. Jack can pass without any trouble, but David can't leave. "Told you so." David's voice sounds solemn and defeated. "Does your family know about this?" Katherine asks incredulously and David shrugs. "If they know, they don't care. I can't remember them, but I googled my own name and nothing turns up. No missing person reports, absolutely nothing."

"Give me your full name", Katherine commands. "Trust me, if you exist, I will be able to find you on the net. I've got skillz son." 

"David Yaakov." Jack claps a hand on Katherine's shoulder. "Well then, David Yaakov, you now have an entire team of Newsies helping you. Ain't no problem too big for us. Except for time, we really gotta run Kathy or Pulitzer will murder us cause we're late at school. See ya around Dave!" The grin Jack Kelly gives him before he takes off makes David's heart skip a beat and naively, he wants to believe Jack and his band of ragamuffins will be able to help him.

_"Bryan! I'm getting married!" Wow, dreaming is just fantastic isn't it? Apparently, Romeo's mind can't even remember his own name (that's not the problem. He knows that's definitely not the problem). He excitedly runs over to the redheaded woman, picks her up and twirls her around. "That's amazing!"_

_The mood shifts and there's smoke, someone is calling his, no, Bryan's name. There's so much panic in their voice and Romeo's (Bryan's?) heart is beating frantically. Too many people are gathered here, he has to stop them, this is bad, the mob is too excited for this execution...."Bryan!" He reaches out, feels the magic running through his veins and raises his right hand to stop the fire, but he freezes. His body won't move and he feels his body returning to his realm. Screaming in frustration, he tries to help her, but he's already fading away from her world. "Don't do this! Please let me help her! She's young, let her live!" His pleas fall unto deaf ears and when he appears in his own realm, he knows that the villagers' witch trial had been successful._

With a jolt and sweat dripping down his face Romeo wakes up. Breathing heavily, he keeps reminding himself that it was just a dream (nothing is ever 'just a dream' with him, his mind whispers). Despite the fact that his mind is wide awake, his body is getting heavy again and he feels his eyes close. He doesn't want to sleep again, but something is pulling at his mind and he's gone again.

_With curious eyes he stares at a young boy tottering around his bedroom. Suddenly he turns around and tilts his head. In the morning light, his eyes look light green and they are a knowing pair of eyes and Romeo (who is he this time?) feels his lips curl up. Seems like this one can see him (her?). "Hello little one. Are you a familiar? Or a witch?" The boy doesn't answer, but squints his eyes as though he can't see Romeo clearly. "A witch then", he (she. Romeo's a she. He doesn't know her name.) concludes._

_The scene shifts, but Romeo is still her. The kid is just a little bit older now, probably four or five and he's walking through the hallways, eyes blank. "Where are you going, little one?" She knows he's not (yet) able to hear her, but she likes to talk to him either way. But there's something off about him today. His movements are too smooth for a four year old and she knows he's looking for something. He stops and a wall opens in front of him, revealing nothing but a black notebook. Too late she realizes what this means. "!האַלטן בויטשיק" (Haltn boychik? What does that mean?) He opens it and drops to the floor. She sighs sadly. The next one has been chosen._

Romeo wakes up again and this time, he knows it's for real. He takes a few deep breath in and out, trying to calm his racing heart. "Mom!" His voice echoes around the house and no one answers. His head is starting to feel really warm and nervousness builds up in his body. After taking a quick look at his alarm clock, he notices that it's a little past nine. His mom had certainly already dropped Race, Jack and Smalls off at school and left for her work.

Normally Jack wakes him up, but apparently he thought that Romeo would be able to wake up on time by himself. He truly has too much faith in Romeo and look where it got them now. Now he has to bike to school. Thanks Jack.

Romeo is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. First off, those fucking weird ass dreams that have been following for 2? 3? years. Then having to bike to school and nearly getting run over by a bus. Now he's in the bathroom, desperately trying to clean his previously nice white button up because a girl dumped strawberry milk all over it. His scrubbing isn't helping the stains come off and tears are gathering in his eyes. 

He'd thought of her as a good friend, he really did, although he always sensed some dishonesty and frustration within her. She had spoken to him first and had been easy to talk to. A fun partner for group works and although she'd always been friendly, her attention immediately shifted whenever Jack entered the room. Could he blame her for that? Nah, having a crush on his older brother was fine, albeit weird. He was Jack, he ate paint on a daily basis and didn't know how to tie shoelaces. 

What did he mind though, was hearing her complain to her friends that "Hanging around that annoying Chinese kid (he wasn't Chinese, but to white people every one who's slightly Asian is immediately Chinese apparently ) wasn't helping her to get closer to his hot brother at all and that she should dump him. 

So during the first break he confronted her about it and thanked her for the friendship they had shared until then, but he wasn't going to associate himself with people who treated other people as disposable goods. Cunning as she was (and beautiful, stupidly funny and ambitious), she made a scene about it and now he was known as not only an unwanted flirt, but also a dishonest and malicious person. As people stared, he wished at least one of the newsies was around.

"You just used me to make people like you, didn't you?" she had cried and damn that hurt. Yet, the part of him that appreciated his friends, wanted to applaud her cunning wit. Turning situations around like that was truly a talent. Then she 'spilt' her strawberry milk on one of his favourite shirts.

So here he is, unsuccessfully trying to wash his shirt in the bathroom as tears are making the damned shirt hard to see. He wishes that this was the first time something like this had happened, but depressingly enough, it's a frequently reoccurring event. He even has a notebook where he keeps a tally of how many times so called 'friends' were actually using him to get closer to one of his friends or his brothers (with shaking fingers, he adds a ninth stripe underneath Jack's name). It both amuses and hurts him to his core.

Because why would you want anything to do with Romeo Larkin? It's way easier to use him as a stepping stone to get to know cooler people! You know what's even cooler? He'll forgive you for it within seconds, because he's just that clingy! 

His thoughts sound bitter to him and he hates it. He hates that people see him as nice and approachable, but that they never approach him for him. Hates that he's annoying, talks too much, moves too much, blurts out things that hit too close for people to be comfortable. Hates that he always knows what's wrong with people, but trying to help them always ends with them leaving, because he's too overbearing, too much to deal with. 

He wishes that he didn't annoy people every time he opened his fucking mouth, wishes that people would think of him as 'good enough' and not 'kind of nice'. He wishes he wasn't so damn dumb and he wishes that he had some kind of quality that set him apart from other people. Jack and Race have charm to spare and so does Smalls in a cheeky but endearing sort of way.

Race is a lovable jackass, whose lips always seem to be graced with a smirk. He's annoying too, but in a way that lights up the room and raises people's spirits. He's often harsh in the way he talks or acts, but he's oh so gentle when he dances. Without words, he manages to tell the most soulful stories in a most breathtaking manner. 

Jack is known to be a playboy, although he isn't. Jack loves quickly and deeply and his affection is never (completely) hidden. Besides his killer looks (the tanned skin, dark curls and deep brown eyes always get to people), he has an undeniable talent in painting and he puts a lot of effort into perfecting his craft. 

Smalls is a firecracker. She doesn't hold back words, spits out opinions before people ask for him and is always down to fight. She's proud and walks around with her head raised high, staring other people down with a gaze that pierces straight through weak souls. She's loud, but in an inspiring way, pulling people along with her ideas and opinions. 

Romeo is Romeo. He tries his best, but his jokes fall flat, his attitude is bothersome (like he could ever be even the slightest bit charming), his loudness is disruptive and unwanted (he should shut up, he really should) and he isn't smart in any way shape or form. 

While he stands there sniffling pathetically, he hears the bathroom door open and he sticks his head under the running tap. Can't see the eye-water if there's water-water all over his head. 

"Romeo? Is that you?" 

Amazing. Of all people who could walk into his embarrassing bathroom breakdown, it had to be Specs. 

"Yeh. It's kind of hot, so I thought I'd take a refreshing shower."

"It's November?" 

'Stupid shit', he thinks by himself. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid."

The tap gets turned off and Specs tells him to wait before running off to somewhere. He doesn't lift his head from the sink, because he can't find the energy within him to move.

Specs, bless his soul, gently sits him down on a chair he's found in the hallway and gently starts drying off his hair. For a while, neither of them says anything. Then Romeo speaks up.

"Where did you get the towel?" 

"My gym bag. Your hair is being fed Special edition Specs Sweat."

"That's disgusting." He doesn't move to make Specs stop though and the boy takes off his slytherin vest. "Why are you stripping?" Specs gestures at Romeo's soaked shirt. "You'll get a cold wearing that and you'd have a stroke if I gave you my gym shirt, because I quote: "I'd rather wear sagging hammer pants, combined with teeth grills and get a rats tail instead of being seen in that."

"This is way too big." Specs pulls his gym shirt over his own head and looks over at Romeo. Romeo sees him bite his lip and indignantly he slaps him with the sleeve of the way too big vest. "Don't laugh asshole." After Specs is done, the boy drapes his arms over Romeo's shoulders. "What's the p-Ro-blem, Ro?"

He crosses his arms, but his voice is still wobbly when he answers. "It's stupid, as per usual. Don't worry about it."

"There were like three red flags in your answer, we're doing the talking. Let's get outta here, because this bathroom is utterly disgusting." He offers Romeo his hand and Romeo takes it with a sigh. When Romeo exits the bathroom, he notices that the break's over. "We should go back to class." Specs scrunches up his nose. "Ew."

Specs leads him towards stairs Romeo didn't even know existed. "Where are we going?" As Specs fishes a keyring out of his pocket, he answers with only one word. "Up." He unlocks the door in front of them and when Romeo peeks past him, he sees the school roof. "Why do you have the keys to this place?"

"I've got the keys to open every door in the school. I thought it would be convenient to be able to access all places. The first key I stole was the master key and I returned it after I let someone copy it. But then I got bored so I made a bet with Race and told him I could get a copy of every individual key of this school within a month. I'm now the proud owner of a shit load of keys and exactly 20 dollars."

Apparently, the school has a freaking roof deck complete with garden furniture. There are lounge chairs and even a table. "How nice that they inform the students about this." Specs loosely hooks his index and middle finger of one hand over the index and middle finger of his other hand and motions with his head towards one of the lounge chairs. Romeo follows his instructions and sits down.

Specs opens another door and Romeo watches him with curiosity. A few minutes a familiar aroma drifts through the air and Romeo recognizes it immediately. "Do they have a fucking coffee machine up here?" Specs doesn't answer and Romeo remembers that he had been complaining about his hearing aids a few days ago. His hearing healthcare professional is very busy at the moment and the appointment isn't until next week. 

Specs comes back and hands him a steaming mug. Romeo gives him something between blowing him a kiss and the asl sign for 'thank you' in return. It's kind of an inside joke and Specs smiles when he sits down in front of him and knocks their knees together. 

Specs holds his hands in front of his chest, fingers spread and only the middle finger are bent towards his chest and then he moves both hands in the direction of his shoulders. It's funny how the signs for 'what's up' is more clear than the actual spoken words. Romeo makes an o-shape underneath his chin and drops the movement. Specs scowls in return and softly kicks his shin.

"Don't 'nothing' me asshole, you were crying in the bathroom. Don't think I didn't notice that." Romeo curls up on the lounge chair, hides his face and wants to start talking, but Specs gently taps his knee and removes his hands from his face. "My right hearing aid completely failed this morning and I think the left one's giving up too."

"Sorry, my bad." Romeo signs and says at the same time. "I just feel..." Both his hands and his voice fall still. "Less? than my siblings. Like there ain't anything special or even remotely likeably to me. That's all." Specs softly bumps their foreheads together. "Romeo Larkin, you are wonderful."

"Sure Jan." Softly, Specs tilts Romeo's chin up and Romeo's breath hitches. He steals a glance at Specs' lips, but quickly redirects his eyes to meet Specs' gaze. "You.are.wonderful. Who's making you feel otherwise? Cuz Imma fight some bitches."

"There seems to be this trend where people befriend me to get closer to someone else. Now that in itself ain't that bad, you've got to enlarge your group of friends somehow, but apparently none of those people actually like me and that kind of gets to me." 

"I'm gonna need names and exactly one screwdriver."

Romeo tries to muffle his giggles with his hand, but Specs prevents him from doing so. "Don't hide your smile, it's beautiful. Listen to me-"

"I am. You're being rather loud." Romeo doesn't mean to be rude, but there is something about the whole situation that makes his heart flutter and palms sweat and he's trying to become less nervous by making jokes.

Specs rolls his eyes in annoyance and messes up Romeo's hair while he squeaks indignantly. "I'm doing my best over here and we were having a moment." Romeo grins. "You could just sign." 

"Nope, I need my hands for other actions." Specs rearranges Romeo's hair that he'd previously messed up and after brushing some strands behind his ear, he lets his hand linger there. Gently Specs strokes Romeo's cheek with his thumb and Romeo's heart leaps into his throat as he shifts a little bit closer.

"You are so kind and emotionally competent, it's nearly unbelievable. You are incredibly in tune with other people and have such a good eye for their emotional wants and needs. You can make people's moods turn around like this." Specs snaps his fingers for emphasis and Romeo swallows the lump in his throat. 

"You are so open and friendly and I hate how people use it to their advantage. You're wonderfully kind and it sucks that people can't return that. You deserve the world." 

Ah fuck. There are the tears, those little fuckers. Immediately Specs has his arms around him and Romeo is wrapped in a firm hug. A very, very firm hug. God, his emotions are all over the place, he thinks while sobbing. 

After some time filled with him ugly crying and Specs running his hands over his back in a soothing manner, the sobs die down and he rests his head on Specs' shoulder. Damn, crying sure is exhausting. "This has been eating at you for a while, hasn't it?" Wordlessly, Romeo nods and Specs lifts his head from his shoulders and with his hands still on Romeo's cheeks, he presses the tips of their noses together.

"If you feel like that again, talk to someone. Me, another one of the guys, your mom, I don't care. Please don't bottle this up, that ain't good for you." Romeo nods and with a hoarse voice and shaking hands he thanks Specs. 

"I want to go home", he announces and he means it. He's emotionally exhausted and it isn't even noon yet. "Can you get there on your own? I'll cover for you. I'd love to keep you company but if I skip another day of school again I'm gonna face some serious consequences, one of which my angry grandma." 

Romeo snorts. "I'll manage. Thanks for all of this." He gestures vaguely at the rooftop, but he means more than that. He doesn't need to put it into words, because Specs nods in understanding. "No problem. I'm here for you." 

Romeo stands up, but Specs' hand reaches out and softly closes itself around his wrist. As Romeo turns around, Specs has his mouth open as though he wanted to say something but forgot the words. "I...", he starts and trails off. Romeo sees his Adam's apple bob up and down as he swallows and nervously licks his lips. 

"Yes?" Specs' bright green aura flares briefly and intensely, but then dies out again. "I'll come over with comfort food", he says, abandoning what he actually wanted to say. They've been dancing around each other like this for a good two years now, but they always stop their attempts at actually getting together halfway through. Neither of them has the courage to spill their feelings, so Romeo just nods as Specs hand slips from his wrist. 

"Thanks", he says and leaves Specs on the rooftop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rivertellsstories on tumblr if any of y’all r interested. Also I’m gonna have a beta, which is exiting :D


	9. 009: Kath on a mission and Scientifically Accurate Nemo Fanfic.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katherine decides to skip school to do her research and get a few more hours of sleep. She offers Jack to stay at hers, but he declines and goes back to his own home.
> 
> After three more hours of sleep, she heads over to Bill and Darcy's. They share a dorm not too far away and she likes to bother them as often as she can. They also have some nifty software they actually should not have and there are always cupcakes present. Oh and Bill and Darcy themselves too, of course. Visiting those two is always a win win situation for Katherine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo y'all.

Katherine decides to skip school to do her research and get a few more hours of sleep. She offers Jack to stay at hers, but he declines and goes back to his own home.

After three more hours of sleep, she heads over to Bill and Darcy's. They share a dorm not too far away and she likes to bother them as often as she can. They also have some nifty software they actually should not have and there are always cupcakes present. Oh and Bill and Darcy themselves too, of course. Visiting those two is always a win win situation for Katherine.

"Hello fuckers-OH MY GOD." Hastily, Bill removes his hand from underneath Darcy's shirt and Darcy shoves Bill So hard away he ends up falling from the couch. When they see who's standing in their room, Darcy huffs. "Payback for that one time with Sarah."

"Whatever, I'm not here for you guys anyway. Darcy, gimme your laptop. Please." He rolls his eyes. "Because you asked so nicely. You know where to find it."

As Katherine lays herself down on one of the couches with the laptop, Bill and Darcy swap a few more kisses before eventually joining her. "What are you looking for kiddo?"

"Stop calling me kiddo, you guys are only two years older than me."

"Whatever kiddo."

She shoots them a glare from the corner of her eye, but starts digging through FBI files and normally inaccessible news archives, looking for a David Yaakov. Bill peeks over her shoulder and hums. "Yaakov? Is he related to your girlfriend?"

"What?" Bill nods towards the screen. "Yaakov is the old way of spelling 'Jacobs' and David is a typically Jewish name." She frowns. "David Jacobs? Sounds kind of familiar." Bill nods. "It does, doesn't it?"

Appalled, Darcy watches the interaction. "Guys? Why are you still acting like you don't know David? It wasn't funny two years ago and it still isn't now. We all have different ways of dealing with grief, but this is quite frankly, disgusting."

Bill and Katherine turn to gaze at him. "Darling, what are you talking about?" Bills sounds confused and slightly confused as he turns towards his boyfriend. "The only David I know, is David Bowie."

Darcy scans their faces, as though he's waiting for one of them to admit that they're just kidding. The utter cluelessness on their faces reveals that they aren't lying or trying to deceive him.

"David Jacobs, you know, the auspicious-kid. Tallish, dark hair, gangly, book smart and street dumb." Bill still has no idea who Darcy's talking about but Katherine frowns. "Where do you know him from?" Perplexed he raises one brow. "Kath, Bill, excuse my wording, but what the fuck are the both of you on? David, one of the twins."

"Dear, the twins are either Mike or Ike." Bill seems relieved that he made sense of the whole situation, but Darcy gives him an annoyed look. "No, Sarah's twin brother. David! Wait, I'll get you guys a picture." He swiftly exits the room and Bill watches him leave with concern clear in the tight set of his shoulders and his pursed lips. "Kath, Sarah only has one brother, right? A younger one, not a twin. What was his name again? Les, that's it."

Katherine nods, gaze still trained on the door Darcy just walked through. "Yeah. I think I'm going to pay Saz a visit tomorrow, there's some weird shit going on here."

One blink, two blinks, something happened. Katherine doesn't know what, but _something_ has changed. "Bill? What happened?" He shakes his head as though he just woke up. "Holy shit, I've got no idea but I'm feeling dizzy as fuck." Disoriented he stumbles around the apartment until he accidentally knocks the clock off the cupboard. As he picks it up, he notices the time. "Kath, what time is it?"

She snorts. "You're the one with the clock in your hands." She casts a quick glance at her wristwatch and frowns at the supposed time. "There's no way it's four in the afternoon already. I just arrived here and I left my house at eleven." Bill holds up the clock in his hands so she can see the time. Four o'clock. They've lost time.

"Fuck!" she shouts and Bill's head whips up. "Loss of time, sign one. Where the fuck is Darcy?" As Katherine's mind moves in a whirlwind, seeing important things but not connecting them, the lights in the apartment start to flicker. She dashes into Bill and Darcy's bedroom, but he isn't there. It's Bill who finds him, flat on his back in the bathroom. Their bathtub is filled to the brim with water and Darcy's hand dangles above it, fingers touching the water just so.

"Water", she mutters. Frantically she lets her gaze travel across the room and lays eyes on the luxurious mirror above the sink. "A mirror."

"Kath, what is going on?" Bill's voice is shaky and small, but she doesn't hear it and stares off, eyes blown wide. "Not one portal but two... _Who entered?_ " She looks Bill in the eye and repeats her question in a more forceful way. **"Who entered?"**

Bill wants to answer that he doesn't know, that he doesn't know what's going on, that Katherine is scaring him, but all those words get caught up in his throat. The force of Katherine's question slams into him and he has to answer, he must, but he really does not know (anymore? yet? who is he now?). He opens his mouth and a pitiful whine comes out instead of an actual answer and his chest and head hurt.

Katherine snaps out of whatever daze she was in and immediately pain stops. "Bill, are you alright?" He feels like he should apologize, but when he looks at Katherine he knows that she wants to do the same. "Darcy", he manages to bring out and she nods.

With careful hands she turns Darcy's head and nearly drops it back as his wide, unseeing eyes stare into hers. Then he quickly blinks a few times and shifts into an upright position. "What are we doing in the bathroom?" Bill buries his head into his boyfriend's neck. "You tell me, dumbass. You said you were going to look for a picture of this David and as far as I know, we don't keep our pics in the bathroom."

"Who's David?" Darcy asks, head tilted in curiosity. Bill rolls his eyes. "Very funny, Darce." Darcy furrows his brows, taken aback at Bill's sarcastic tone. "I... I have no idea who you're talking about."

While Bill tries to pry more information out of Darcy in vain, Katherine stares at the filled bathtub. Carefully, she touches the water with the tips of her fingers. The water sizzles to life and instead of the bottom of the tub, she sees the familiar willow at the demon's den' lake. Curious, she plants her foot into the water and screeches as she falls way deeper than the bottom of the bathtub.

One way or another, Romeo does not end up at his own home. He stares at the front of the demon's den, where his feet have unconsciously brought him and really, he should start paying attention to his surroundings when he's walking. Going in alone is probably not a very smart idea, but the door swings open invitingly and Romeo enters.

The unusual brightness of the house, is something Romeo immediately takes notice of. He can't detect the oppressive, dark presence that had been looming over the house before, but that's actually more worrying than reassuring. When he enters the living room, he spots David.

The older teen is laying on his back, a book on his stomach. He's laying underneath the window, letting the sun shine down on his face and he looks a little bit healthier. "There's a sofa and you chose the floor?" he jokes and David lazily cracks one eye open. "I'm a dignified gay. Furniture is for weak, straight people."

Romeo laughs as David sits up. After he glances at the clock, David frowns. "Shouldn't you be in school?" Romeo shrugs. "I'm taking a mental health day off. Today, I am, not very legally, allowed to leave school."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Romeo considers it for a moment, but then shakes his head. "No, I'm feeling a bit better now. However, there is something else I want to talk about."

He sits down next to David and bluntly asks: "What's that godawful presence that was around here and where has it gone to?" David's head jerks in surprise and he looks like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Chill, I see dead people. It happens all the time."

"Oh. Well then, I'll tell you all about it." David pauses and Romeo looks at him expectantly.

"I don't know either", David admits and Romeo throws his hands up. "Dude, I was expecting something dramatic or life threatening and you just don't know?"

"Yup. I've been trying to find out what exactly is happening around here and I have an alphabetized list of Things I Know For SureTM, but it really isn't helping me because I forgot all the important stuff." Romeo gives him a weak slap on the shoulder. "Good going Dave. Lemme look at it anyway, I'm curious."

David rolls his eyes and holds out his hand. Romeo gives him a weird look, but then a notebook materializes in David's hand. "That's fucking cool", he says in awe and David laughs. "If you think that's cool, you should've seen me at the beginning of this whole ordeal. I was able to more than this." David's hands have a faint purple glow as he stares at them, deep in thought and a deep rooted sadness turn brings out the blue in his purple aura.

"How come you aren't able to do that anymore?"

" _He's_ responsible for it. The presence that isn't here right now."

"What is he exactly?"

David shakes his head instead of answering. "You'll find out within a few days or so, it doesn't matter now."

Romeo wants to know what's going on, because the nagging feeling that David is in serious danger won't leave him. As he glances at David and sees his clenched jaw and hopeless eyes, he knows that asking more won't help either of them. He plucks the notebook from David's hands and starts flipping through it.

"Davey, I can't read this. You should really fix your handwriting."

"You're holding it upside down."

"Oops, didn't notice that." Romeo flips the book around and reads the scrawls again.

"..."

"You still can't read it, right?"

"Yeah", he admits reluctantly.

"I'll read it, give me that thing." David takes the book back and stares at his own handwriting.

"..."

"You can't read your own handwriting?" Romeo asks in disbelief and David raises one hand. "Look, we've all got our mistakes. Also, I managed to decipher it. Here we go:

· **I** am David.

· I am seventeen years old.

· I'm a formerly bound witch.

· Yaakov is likely my last name (e.g. Ernst, Becks, Abby).

That's it."

"That's not a lot. I have questions. Who're Ernst, Becks, Abby and the Red Lady? Why do they fear her? What's a bound witch and how come you are one? And how is something 'likely' your name?"

"My name is likely Yaakov, because Ernst and the girls have Yaakov as their surname and they are my family but I don't remember it so that's why I'm saying 'likely'. Ernst, Becks, Abby and the Red Lady are some of the other occupants of this house, but I don't think they're around right now. I'm not exactly sure why they fear her either, but it worries me that dead people stay away from her. That can't be a good sign."

Romeo nods. "If she's pulling rank on the others, you just have to take over her rank. Beat her ass. You're a witch, right? Magic her outta this world."

David gives him a humourless smile. "Wish I could, but I don't have that kind of power. We'll have to find other witches for that."

"Cool. Where do we find them?" David gives him an incredulous look and Romeo shrugs. "It never hurts to try man. Don't stop trying because you're scared of failing. How do you recognize a witch?"

"I don't. People like you do." Romeo blinks in confusion and David elaborates. "Us witches can manipulate magic, but we can't exactly see it. So, we make pacts with familiars and they are our magical eyes and ears, so to speak. In return, they can borrow magic from us."

"Oh!" Romeo snaps his fingers. "Like a mutualistic symbiosis! I only know that term because I got very enthusiastic while researching clownfish. I wanted to write a scientifically accurate Nemo fanfic." David massages his temples and sighs, dragging his fingers down his face. "Why would you want to do that?" Romeo grins. "It was a birthday present for Race. Don't worry, he loved it."

"I..." David trails of and every thought seems to leave him. "I don't even know what I wanted to say anymore, you completely threw me off." Romeo pats him on the back. "I'm not even the weirdest one. Wait until you hold a conversation with Racer or Elmer. God I love Elmer, but sometimes the shit he spouts confuses the fuck outta me. Anyway, you were talking about familiars."

"Right, the mutualistic symbiosis. Usually familiars are animals with a high magical perception, like cats or toads. Once in a while, you'll stumble upon human familiars, like you. They are either people with a bloodline filled with magic, or they aren't completely human. Sometimes it's a combination of those two, but those people should just not get involved with magic at all."

"Why not? Mixed bloodlines seem ideal for the whole magic thing."

"It is, that's why people of full blood are so against it. On This Side of the veil, it's a taboo but not explicitly forbidden. On the Other Side however, full-blooded witches will hunt down all half-bloods and eliminate them. The Other Side is pretty fucked up."

"What's the Other Side? Is it like the Harry Potter-universe where death eaters kill half-bloods?" David considers it and chews his bottom lip. "I think it's a good comparison to the Harry Potter-universe if death eaters ruled over it. You could compare the treatment of human familiars to the treatment of house elves."

Romeo frowns. "I don't like that. Should I go around asking people for socks?" David gives him a small laugh. "Asking for socks is always a good thing, I mean, who doesn't want more socks? But what I meant is that familiars are treated as slaves, as tools to use."

He slaps his own leg in irritation. "That's!Not!How!It!Works! It's supposed to be a bond formed on mutual respect! It's in the name, bound witch! But the witches over there destroyed the knowledge familiars had about their own abilities and basically enslaved them. You can't force a bond between people! And if you're trying that, buddy, you're doing something seriously wrong."

"Preach it sister. So are a witch and a familiar, like, exclusive items? Is their relationship supposed to be romantic?"

David shakes his head. "No, it can be romantic but I wouldn't recommend it. It's a link between people, where you share your own magic capabilities, thoughts and feelings with the other. You can put limits on it during the linking ritual though. But it's still a relationship where you have a certain amount of control over the other person. Should your romantic relationship have a dip, it could have serious consequences for the both of you."

He pauses his explanation, holds his right hand on his neck and concentrates. When he removes his hand, purple and red swirls alive on his skin, painting broken symbols down his neck. "I used to have a familiar, but as you can see, the contract isn't intact anymore." He points at one symbol, that's almost completely torn apart. "I used magic on my familiar without their permission, breaking one of the ground rules of our contract an destroyed the whole bond we had."

David falls silent and sadness radiates off of him. Desperate to change the mood around again, Romeo asks: "Can I paint your nails?"

Surprised, David looks up and he frowns in disbelief as Romeo digs a nail kit from his backpack. "Shouldn't you put school books in there instead of a nail kit?" Romeo ignores the statement and gives him a puppy face. "Can I? Please?" David sighs and holds out his hands. "Go ahead."

Carefully, Romeo paints David's nails a bright pink and with some white, he starts doodling on them. When he's finished, his mind draws a blank. "I have no idea what the fuck I just drew, let me get some nail polish remover."

David stops him from doing so. "Leave them. You just drew protection sigils on my nails. I doubt that they're going to help a lot, but I think they're sweet." Romeo raises one brow. "You're kidding, right?" David shakes his head and waves his hands. "Not at all. Look, the first one is says 'protection', this one 'strength' and so forth." He gives Romeo a pensive look. "Where did you learn these?"

"I might've seen them on Pinterest? I don't know. How come you know so much about witchcraft, but nothing about yourself?"

"Leah, could you show us the library?" Romeo watches in awe as the entire house shifts around and forms a ginormous library. The shelves are multiple stories high and there's a cosy fireplace with a nice looking armchair beside it. "I don't personally remember it, but this is generations of knowledge on witchcraft, collected by my family."

Romeo wanders through the room, letting his fingers trail over old books and cd's. Cd's? He pauses and plucks the cd from the shelf. "Oh my God, is this Beyoncé?"

With a guilty smile David nods. "I love Beyoncé." Romeo screeches and zooms over to David. "You're truly a man of culture, David. Let's hold a fucking karaoke party."

David sighs, but two minutes later, he has joined Romeo on a table and they're singing Single Ladies at the top of their lungs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm rivertellsstories on Tunglr, hit me up if you'd like. I like screaming about newsies. A lot.


	10. The ring girl and also the encouraging of hip old people using slang.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Specs sighs deeply and sprawls across a table as he waits for his friends. As the first ones, Elmer and Buttons, approach, he sighs again while adding three levels of drama to it and drapes his arm over his forehead. "Damn bitch, what happened to you?" Buttons asks and Elmer just shakes his head. "Specs, you sad bitch. Man up and ask Romeo out already. My homie deserves it and if you keep chickening out, I'll ask him out."

Specs sighs deeply and sprawls across a table as he waits for his friends. As the first ones, Elmer and Buttons, approach, he sighs again while adding three levels of drama to it and drapes his arm over his forehead. "Damn bitch, what happened to you?" Buttons asks and Elmer just shakes his head. "Specs, you sad bitch. Man up and ask Romeo out already. My homie deserves it and if you keep chickening out, I'll ask him out."

"You don't even like Romeo romantically", Specs states flatly and Elmer shrugs. "So what? We'll have a good time bowling and we'll take cute, slightly risqué selfies and send them to you to make you jealous. You know, like always." 

Specs gives him a confused look. "But I know he likes me? And I'm pretty sure that he knows I like him too? Also, I just thought you guys were just being you, I don't think I'm even able to be jealous of you two going bowling because bowling sucks."

"IF YOU KNOW HE LIKES YOU, YOU SHOULD, I DON'T KNOW, ASK HIM OUT?" Elmer screeches and Specs yells back: "BITCH I'M TRYING, I'M JUST HAVING SOME TROUBLE!"

"Whatever, has anyone seen my personfriend?" Buttons asks.

"Personfriend?" Elmer repeats.

"Personfriend?" Specs echoes too and Buttons sighs. "I forgot the nonbinary term for partner", she pouts and Specs squints his eyes. "But you just said it? It's partner, honey. Did you get enough sleep?" 

At that moment, JoJo arrives and Buttons ignores Specs' question and holds her arms out for a hug, ignoring Specs muttered: "Rude."

"Babe, I need a hug. A big one with an extra shot of love, please." JoJo wraps their arms around her with a smile. "Like this?" "Exactly like this."

Elmer, Buttons and JoJo turn simultaneously turn around, so Specs does too. All of them lay eyes on Blink, who's casually holding Mush's hand. "Gross", Blink repeats and signs it. One by one, more and more newsies join the table. "Okay everyone!" Specs shouts over the crowd as he climbs on the table. "Headcount time! Who ain't here? Loud and clearly please! Or ya know, sign it."

"Romeo!" Specs waves it off. "He went home, wasn't feeling that well." Elmer gasps loudly. "My son wasn't feeling okay and you didn't even tell me?" Specs frowns. "Ain't Romeo older than you?" Elmer huffs indignantly. "That's beside the point! My sick son needs caring! Why didn't you become his personal nurse, bastard?" 

Specs hands Elmer his agenda, opened on a specific page. From top to bottom, it's filled with all the dates where he skipped class. "If they catch me one more time, I'll get a three day suspension and I'm not in the mood for that. Well, I don't care about the detention, it's just my grandma's reaction that I fear."

Elmer cocks his head sideways. "Is she really that bad? I've heard stories, but they all sound too crazy to be true." At that moment, Specs' phone vibrates and he frowns and trusts his phone in Elmer's face. "I can't hear it, help a man out." 

"Yes?" The voice of an old woman crackles through the phone's speakers. "Fear me, boy." With a click, the woman hangs up. Confused, Elmer hands Specs his phone back.

"Now that that's outta the way, who else are we missing?"

"The twins", Henry chimes and Finch nods beside him. "Jack and Kath too. Smalls and Sniper ain't here either, but they said they were gonna vandalize something together and they had graffiti spray cans with them. Nothing too bad."

"The twins said they were gonna come to the meetup, but I haven't seen Jack since yesterday", Race adds and his fingers tap on the table in a nervous manner. "I don't know if he came home, to be honest." 

Before Race can get more worried, Crutchie's already calling Jack. Jack picks up after the third call and Crutchie puts him on speaker. "Charlie fucking Morris, if you made me leave my sweet bed for nothing, I swear to God-" 

"Jack's alright", Crutchie announces and he adds: "Kath's also awake, she sent me a good morning snap, but she's staying with Bill and Darcy today. I don't know where the twins are at though." 

The group breaks out in murmuring again and when he sees the plain annoyance on Specs' face, Race climbs up on the table and stands beside him. "Okay people, here's the plan!" he shouts, drawing the attention of all the newsies. "Me, Specs and Elmer'll go check on Jack and Romeo. Finch, you're in charge of all the people who're gonna go ahead to the DD. Any questions?"

Albert raises his hand and Henry groans. "Don't Albert. Please don't." Of course, this reaction immediately catches Race's attention and he grins. "Please proceed, Albert. Share your innovative ideas with us." 

"Is the Chupacabra a case of bestiality? Since he sucks off goats?" 

Scandalized, Mush turns to Albert. "You did not just say that. He doesn't suck goats off, idiot. He sucks their blood." As Albert 'ooohs', Blink turns to Mush. "Does this mean that he's a case of clinical vampirism?" 

"Blink. Honey. Baby. Darling. Shut the fuck up." 

"I deserve better than this", Blink protests and Albert opens his arms. "Come into my arms babe, we'll go alien hunting together. Me, you, Racer and the starry sky with hopefully some extra-terrestrials, doesn't that sound great?"

Blink hums and throws himself in Albert's arms, while Mush gasps in mock offense. "Babe, please come back. I can offer you high quality hugs." As Blink pretends to consider it, Mush opens his arms with a smile. With a sigh, Blink reunites with his boyfriend while their friends holler in the background. 

When they break apart, Blink nudges Mush's side. "Not to be appreciative of Albert on main, (Albert protests loudly) but the guy gives nice hugs." Albert flexes one arm and slaps his own bicep. "I got these babies for hugging. One day, I'll give even better hugs than Crutchie." 

"No you won't. No one can touch hug king Crutchie." 

"Okay, that's fair." 

Race claps loudly in his hands. "Okay newsies, hit the streets! Or do y'all wanna stay here all afternoon?" With a loud "No!" the group splits up.

"Guys?" Elmer pulls on Specs arm to let him know that Race said something and the guilty expression on Race's face tells Specs more than enough. "You forgot your keys, didn't you?" Instead of answering, Race rings the doorbell. Five minutes later, he rings it again. And again, ten minutes after that. As Elmer stares at the door and asks Race: "What if I eat the door?", Specs climbs up the waterpipe.

About a minute or so after, they hear Jack scream and a little bit later, Specs opens the front door, nibbling on a chocolate chip cookie. "Hello, welcome in my realm. We've got cookies and we're almost out of eggs and bread." 

While Race checks the kitchen, Elmer runs upstairs to wake Jack up. "Jack!" he yells as he bursts into Jack's bedroom and jumps on the bed. "Brush your teeth and then get some breakfast! Put on clothes and then take a shower!" 

Groggily, Jack sits up and pats Elmer's head. "I think...", he spaces out for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts. "I don't think that's the right order. Gotta....Put on clothes, brush teeth, shower, breakfast?" 

"I don't think that's right either, let's go ask Specs." Elmer drags a whining Jack down the stairs. "Jack is up!" 

"How 'bout Romeo?" Race asks as Jack grabs a fistful of cornflakes straight out of the container and shoves it in his mouth, crunching and munching like the fool he is. Elmer races back up the stairs and enters Romeo's room, screeching like a banshee. When it prompts no response, he looks around the room. 

Downstairs, Specs turns towards Race. "Twenty bucks. Romeo ain't here." Race gives Specs a side-eye. "You're one of the three people I won't gamble with, Specsie. You know just a bit too much for me to be comfortable." 

Elmer races back into the kitchen. "ROMEO'S GONE! I checked everywhere, even the closet. To be honest, I should've known that he wasn't gonna be there, but still." Race squints at Specs. "How did you know? Did you check Romeo's room before opening the door?"

"Probably not, he's just freaky like that", Elmer says through a mouthful of cornflakes he stole from Jack. "We, which is me, Specs and JoJo, had a sleepover when we were eight and he just goes: 'I don't like the dead lady in the chair' and pointed at a rocking chair in JoJo's room and then that fucking chair moved on its own. JoJo can do weird shit too man, I hate having sleepovers with those two alone." 

Race gives Specs a contemplating glance, but before he can say anything, Jack announces that he's ready to go. "Is someone gonna call Romeo?" he yawns and Specs scrunches his nose in confusion. "What?" When Jack waves it off, Race realises the mistake he's made before Jack himself does. Within seconds, Specs has a glass of ice cold water in his hands and he dumps it in Jack's t-shirt. 

"Fuck!" Jack yells. "What was that for?" With jerky hand movements and a stark face, Specs tells Jack to stop excluding him from conversations. "Sorry man, I ain't that awake yet. But, someone should..." His hands pause and Race sighs. "Please tell me you didn't forget the sign for call."

Jack gives his brother the finger and finishes his sentence. "Call Romeo." As Jack changes into another shirt, Elmer calls Romeo and when he hangs up, he informs them that Romeo is already at the Demon's den. 

Before they leave, Specs grabs 5 packets of instant noodles from the cupboard and stuffs it into his backpack. "Are you stealing from us?" Specs shrugs. "I promised Romeo comfort food, but I don't wanna go all the way to chinatown to get these and he's picky about his noodles. So basically, yes. Let's go, people!"

Jack walks in on David standing on a table, singing Halo while Romeo sits cross-legged on the floor, cheering him on. "Get it Dave!" Romeo hollers and David adds a series of riffs in the song for fun. Jack whistles in appreciation. "Damn David, you've got one hell of a voice on ya."

Startled, David loses his balance and immediately Jack jumps forward, trying to break his fall. It's at that moment, when Jack is awkwardly trying to balance David in his arms, that Finch's group arrives. Henry shields his eyes. "I don't know what's happening and I'm not sure if I want to know." 

"How come y'all are this late?"

Finch wildly gestures at the whole group. "All these fuckers wanted to eat somewhere else! Tommy Boy and Kid Blink nearly got into a fight and I wasn't gonna break those two up, I don't have a death wish. Tommy Boy might be physically stronger, but Kid Blink has the ferocity of a mad chihuahua with rabies. He just won't give up."

Instead of getting offended by the description, Blink nods proudly. "How do y'all think I lost my eye?" The silence that follows says more than any suggestions the newsies could've made. 

"Anyway folks, put on The Ring before I lose my other eye trying to fight y'all because we can't choose which movie we wanna watch."

As all newsies arrange themselves on the floor and couches, Jack tries to make the dvd work as Race screams at him to just use Netflix, while Romeo and Elmer run around to close the blinds. Finch adds the finishing touch by turning of the lights. 

"Hey, I stole this from your house", Specs says in a charming manner and Romeo snorts as Specs hands him the instant noodle packs. "Thanks babe, I appreciate that." All newsies watch in confusion as Romeo crunches the noodles in a plastic bowl and throws the flavour powder over it. Then he covers the bowl with a plate, mixing the flavour powder and the crushed, hard noodles. As he catches the weird looks on his friends' faces he shrugs. "Did y'all seriously think I was gonna eat these without chopsticks? I'm not a savage. Also, this shit's good." The newsies shrug and get back to watching tv.

When the scene where the ghost girl crawls out of the tv comes around, Romeo's only half paying attention, cosily cuddled underneath Specs' arm. Then, he spots it. Right beside the tv, stands a little girl with her long, dark hair covering her face. When she takes one slow step forward, he screams and Specs jumps to his feet.

Green light materialises around the girl like lasers from Kim Possible, trapping her in place and Specs asks in a loud voice: "Who are you and what are your intentions?" Judging by the gasps from the other newsies and one tiny scream from Henry, he assumes that they can see her too. "Hey, knock it off", David grumbles, giving Specs' shoulder a light shove and the green light disappears. "Becks, what's wrong?"

The tiny girl launches herself into David's arms, nearly knocking him over. As he flicks her hair out of her face, he kneels down to look her in the eye. "You okay?" With rapid hand movements, she explains what's going on and David nods. "Oh I can braid your hair if you want. Will you introduce yourself to the others in the meantime? Because it's kind of rude to just barge into a meeting." She shakes her head and buries her head in his sleeve. "Want me to do it?" She looks up with a bright smile, nods enthusiastically and plops down in front of David.

"So everyone, this is Rebecca. Can they call you Becks?" Glaring at Specs, she shakes her head furiously. "Rebecca then. She's seven, kind of and she can't talk, but she knows sign language." Rebecca opens her mouth and shows her lack of a tongue and without any hesitation she explains why she doesn't have one anymore. "I am a witch with a bit of a knack for talking people into doing things, but the people didn't really like that and cut of my tongue and I drowned in my own blood." 

"Oh", Romeo says between bites of crushed up noodle, drenched in flavour powder, "That's not ideal. Also Specs, we need to talk. Like, right now. How come you can see ghosts?" Then he frowns as though he's gathering his thoughts and when his expression clears up again, he gives Specs a solid kick to his shin. "WHAT THE FUCK DUDE?!? When we first came here, you told me that there was nothing in the closet with me, which was a total lie, bitch."

Specs put his hands up in a defensive stance. "To my own, admittedly very weak, defense, I did actually think it was your imagination. I mean, you didn't react to my grandma or Denton at all, so I thought you weren't sensitive to magic." 

"Your grandma? Denton?"

"Yeah, grandma is a witch and Denton is...something. I can't put my finger on it." Romeo tilts his head back and closes his eyes for a few moments. "Well now that you mention it, that does explain a few things. Like, the flying silverware that puts itself back into the cabinets." Specs stares at him in disbelief. "You actually saw the kitchen in action and went 'nah, that ain't magic'." Romeo swats at him in annoyance. "Look, strange shit happens all the time and I kinda got used to it. How am I supposed to know that that ain't normal?"

"Fair enough. But still-"

A door flies open and nothing stands in the doorway. Romeo and Specs however, catch the thin, bald man standing stiffly in the doorway. "Young sir? I believe the girls have gotten tired of not interacting with our guests. They might reveal themselves today."

"You don't say, Ernst", David deadpans as he finishes Rebecca's braid. As Ernst pushes his glasses further upon his nose, he solidifies himself so the whole group can see him. "Sarcasm isn't very swag of you, young sir", he says, face revealing no emotion and David cringes. "Ernst stop please, nobody talks like that."

Race, who seems to have gotten over his shock, chimes in. "No Davey, don't be like that! You've got to be supportive of old people trying to learn youth lingo instead of moaning about it like other old people. So mister Ernst, I think your attempts are totally sister snatched." With his face still blank, Ernst dabs and nods at a hollering Race and Albert, while David hides his face in his hands. "I hate this family."

 

A disembodied head rolls into the room and stops at Finch's feet who shrieks and gives it a solid kick. The head screams as it sails through the air and Kid Blink is the one who catches it. He turns it around in his hands. "Hello! I'm Abigail, but you can call me Abby! I am eight", the head of yet another young girl chirps and Blink gives her a nod. "Hi, I'm Kid Blink, Blink for short. Did you know I can also remove parts of my body?"

Blink pushes his eyepatch to the side with one hand, still holding Abby's head with the other. Then he takes his glass eye out of his eye socket and holds it up in front of her. "See?" The loud thumping of feet can be heard and then a headless body appears. Abby takes her head from Blink's hand, screws it back on, grabs Blink's glass eye and looks at it in awe. "This is so cool!" she gushes. 

David rolls his eyes so hard that Jack gets worried that his eyes'll roll out of their sockets as well. "Anybody else who wants to introduce themselves or can we resume watching the movie?" he yells and for a moment nothing happens. Then, two identical heads peak through the ceiling. "We're actually allowed to meet them now?" 

David glares up at the ceiling with his mouth set into a thin line. "By meeting them, I don't mean trying to drown them in a lake, Ethan, Evan." 

"Look", one head starts and the other continues, "we momentarily forgot living people need to breathe. We've been dead for a while and we're sorry." After those words, one body slinks out of the ceiling with two heads attached to it. "I'm Ethan", the left head says and the right one adds: "I'm Evan. It's nice to meet you all and we're sorry for almost drowning you." He points at Mike. Ike charges forward, tries to punch them and flies straight through them while yelling: "That shit ain't funny!"

With tired eyes, David turns to Jack. "Their rudeness proves they aren't related to me. None of my family members would try to harm someone like that. Well, maybe one would, you know who I'm talking about." Jack nods and before he can answer David, a calm and sharp voice rings through the room as David mutters: "Speak of the devil."

"David dear, you didn't mention we'd be having guests over today."

The reaction from the other housemates is immediate. Abby and Rebecca hide behind David, while the conjoined twins and Ernst disappear into thin air as the Red Lady appears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we’re a day later than normal, but that’s because word decided to erase half of my chapter :) anyway u can scream at me on tumblr, I’m rivertellsstories over there. @all the people who comment, ur the real mvp’s I read and try to answer all of them.


	11. Kath and Kath have a talk + Double Dave’s

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Javid making out babyyyy. Also, plot is slowly arriving

The temperature in the room drops and even the other newsies, who haven't met the Lady in Red yet, are visibly unnerved by her. Effortlessly she fills the room, sucking the life out of the previous jolly atmosphere and every little positive thought seems to drown in her oppressive presence. 

"David, where are Ernst and the twins? It's terribly rude to be absent." She glances at the walls and snaps her fingers, making the room shift around and creating an enormous, badly illuminated ballroom. As the walls spit out Ernst, Ethan and Evan, she turns towards one of the windows and throws it open. "Come on in, friends! Let us welcome the new ones."

Jack's skin crawls as her "friends" appear. One by one, shadowy figures drag themselves out of the ground, clawing at the earth as they make their way towards the ballroom. Once there, it becomes clear that they are humans. Or at least, they once were human. These ghosts (it feels wrong to call them that) have nothing in common with Abby, Rebecca and the others except for the fact that they're all dead. They possess no personal warmth, faces expressionless, blanc. As the empty shells of what once were people take place in the grand ballroom, that suddenly seems to shrink, the Lady in red claps excitedly in her hands and the sound reverbs through the room. "Let us dance!" 

An empty eyed girl takes Jack by the arm and leads him across the dancefloor. Every other newsie has been snatched up by one of the hollow ghosts. He cranes his neck in search of David and finds his friend in the clutches of the Red Lady, in the centre of the ballroom. He looks uncomfortable, moves awkwardly and all in all looks as though he'd rather be anywhere else.

It's at that moment that he knows what all of this is for. It's a show of power, a taunt towards all of them, but mostly David. She's shoving him into the spotlight in a way he doesn't want to, exposes all of them to beings that David didn't want them to see and forces herself into his space. The newsies and the more friendly ghosts, they're David's peace in a sense and she's yanking it out of his hands. 

Yeah, Jack's not a big fan of that. He slips out of his ghost's arms, but she doesn't appear to notice it. He goes on a quest for Albert's backpack and when he's found it, he rummages through it until he finds the two speakers that Albert always carries with him. He connects to his own phone and a few seconds later El Choclo blasts through the ballroom and Jack races towards David in an overdramatic manner. 

With a deep bow, he asks David to dance with him and with a startlingly loud laugh, he agrees and Jack sweeps him off of his feet. Their action catches the attention of the other newsies, who immediately take the chance to abandon their dead dance partners and swap them in for more lively ones. 

Ever so slowly, the room brightens as newsies laugh merrily and Race and Albert zoom by, their dance looking ridiculous but refined at the same time. Elmer and Romeo have clasped their hands together spinning into circles as hard as they can, trying to make themselves dizzy. 

After Specs and JoJo make the ballroom their bitch, both being used to dancing with each other because they both attend the same class (JoJo likes lifting and Specs likes to be lifted), they part ways, leaving JoJo and Buttons to dance and giggle with each other. Specs wants to dance with Romeo, but when he sees how woozy the guy looks, he decides against it. He does not want to be puked on, thank you very much.

One of the little girls, Rebecca, he remembers, approaches him and holds out her hand expectantly. "You owe me an apology for attacking me", she signs with her eyebrows raised, "can you teach me how to dance?" 

"I'll teach you e v e r y t h i n g (he over exaggerates each part of the sign, he loves teaching) young one. You're in good hands." Crutchie, Mike and Ike have camped on the floor, making idle conversation as they watch their friends fool around. Abby has taken to talking with Blink and Mush and Henry and Finch are trying to teach Ernst and the conjoined twins fortnite dances.

"Oh no", Jack remarks and David stops gazing at his feet and counting his steps to ask: "What?" He immediately regrets it as he and Jack simultaneously step on each other's feet. "Specs is teaching the tiny one how to dance." As they come to a halt, David shrugs. "I don't see the problem? They made up, that's good right?" Jack gives him a conspiratorial smile. 

"Specs is an absolute monster when it comes to anything dancing. He can and will teach you everything, but you'll have to work hard. I hope she's ready." David spares the two a glance and smiles. "Becky seems to be having fun, she'll be fine." He slumps forward and sighs in the crook of Jack's neck, who shudders involuntary in return.

"I'm glad that she's gone." For a moment Jack doesn't know who David's talking about, but then he notices the absence of the Red Lady. The emotionless ghosts have disappeared too, leaving the ballroom a whole lot brighter. "Me too", he admits and he lifts David's head from his shoulder by placing one finger under his chin. "Are you alright?" 

In the back of his head, Jack registers how close they are to each other. His own hand is still on the small of David's back, a residue from their attempt at dancing. "I'm fine, but I'd like to go to my room. It's a big rowdy for my liking", he admits quietly and Jack squeezes the hand that's still on his shoulder.

"Allow me to escort you to your chambers, sir", Jack says with a fake accent, making David laugh again. It's a joyous sound that Jack wants to hear again and again. "Very well sir." They exit the room, leaving the others behind. Most of them don't notice. Race gives Albert a poke with his elbow. "Would'ya look at that. My baby is growing up."

Once in David's room, both of them halt awkwardly. "So....", Jack starts and David continues: "So?" They look at each other for a few seconds before Jack bursts into laughter and David follows soon after. When the laughter dies down, they cross eyes again and this time David starts giggling first and seconds later Jack's giggling too.

"Stop", David wheezes after a few minutes. "My stomach hurts." Jack avoids his eyes, laughter still occasionally bubbling out of him. "I can't. You have to stop looking at me like that." David snorts in return and tries to smother the sound with his arm and fails miserably. "Don't you dare start again", he says, staring Jack down as Jack completely ignores him and cracks up again.

"Here's the", David interrupts himself with a giggle and continues, "plan. You go paint. I read a book. We'll talk when we're able to." Jack nods and flashes him a thumbs up. "Let's try that."

Although it takes them a good half hour, they both manage to calm down again. "Okay, I'm gonna look around and look at you." David halfheartedly flings his cushion at Jack. "You're setting us up for ruin!" Jack turns around and smiles. "Nah, I ain't. What are you reading?" he asks and plumps down next to David on the bed.

"Magnus Chase and the ship of the dead. It's nothing too fancy, but it's very dear to me." Jack looks at him in surprise. "Rick Riordan wrote that, didn't he? I read the Percy Jackson books. It took me three years and it was totally worth it. JoJo read the Magnus Chase books though and they absolutely adored Alex." 

"You all sure are a very lgbt+ friendly group huh?"

"I mean, we gotta bi."

David blinks at that. "Did you just make a bi pun?" Jack grins and gives him finger guns. In response, David sits up and sighs. "I gotta gay", he says and moves to go, but Jack catches his wrist and pulls him back. "Don't go Dave. You may gay though." 

"Ah yes, thank you very much for allowing me to gay." Jack nods solemnly. "No problem at all." His gaze briefly travels from David's eyes to his lips and then quickly flicks back to his eyes again. "How much exactly am I allowed to gay?" David asks and his voice cracks halfway through. "As much as you want to", Jack breathes and there's a moment where they stare at each other.

Just as he thinks that the suspension might be his cause of death, David rolls on his side, brings Jack closer by placing his hand on the back of his head and kisses him. For a moment it's just the soft connecting and reconnecting of lips, but then David asks him to sit up. The rough, scratchy sound of his voice could convince Jack to do just about anything and he quickly rushes to sit up.

It draws a laugh from David, who's now seated in his lap and he gently knocks their foreheads together. "You sure are eager." It's a true statement and Jack nods quickly. "Yes." He doesn't waste anymore words, puts his hands in David's hips and draws him closer. He kisses his collarbone and a soft gasp leaves David's lips. "Jackie", he sighs and Jack wants to repeat his actions to hear that sound again, but David has other plans. The other teen cups Jack's face in his hands and kisses him deeply. 

He drops his right hand down and uses it to touch Jack's chest softly, drawing patterns into it. Jack relocates his hand as well, putting one on David's thigh and the other one at the small of his back. Gently, Jack lets his tongue slip into David's mouth and -

"Hey Dave do you have any spare OH MY GOD!" Elmer and Romeo take turns trying to cover each other's eyes. "Why? We're innocent children", Elmer whines and Romeo pulls a face. "Top ten things I never want to witness again: number 1, my older brother making out with someone. Have some shame Jack."

"What are you hooligans here for?" 

"Kath, Bill and hot-glasses-who-isn't-Specs just came in and they're soaking wet. We wanted to ask if you've got some spare clothes for em." David sighs and throws his closet doors open. "Go wild", he grumbles and Romeo and Elmer do exactly that. When the two have gathered the ugliest pieces of clothing they could find within David's closet they move to leave and Jack tugs on David's sleeve. "We should go see what's up."

-

"Katherine." Somebody is saying her name rather insistently, but Katherine doesn't want to wake up yet. She's still sleepy, fuck the system. "Katherine, wake up you fuckhead. Damn, I don't remember being this lazy." Somewhere in the back of her head, Katherine remembers falling through the bathtub and comes to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, she should wake up.

She opens her eyes and immediately she realised that she's dreaming. The weather's too hot for November and there's also the fact that she's staring at herself. Well, herself maybe a year or ten ago. Bratty expression, an out of control bob cut and the air of someone who knows how to get what she wants (the key to that is hard work and the ability to not give a fuck about other people's opinions). 

"Finally", her younger self says and sighs. "You should've gone through Puberty a while ago, but you haven't even started yet! Katherine please, are you the child of Joseph Pulitzer and Katherine Davis or not?" 

"What do my parents have to do with the physical ageing of my body?" The other Katherine gapes at her and then quickly shakes her head. "No, no, no, ew! That's not what I meant! I meant, when are you going to realise you've got magical abilities? I started experimenting with magic when I was like, four or something."

It's at this point that Katherine realises that they are probably not the same person. "Who are you?" The little girl gives her a sharp grin. "Katherine Ethel Pulitzer, an earlier version of you. Sorta. I got killed a while ago though, but I decided that my next reincarnation needed to be asskicked just a little bit as a wake up call. Your power is needed Kathy."

"I don't understand", she answers because honestly? This sounds like some made up bullshit, but somewhere she can remembers fragments of this past ("Daddy? What's going on?" "It's going to be alright, Katherine. Let's play a game. Close your eyes and count to ten. When you open them again, everything will be fine." "Mmkay. One, two, three-")

"Not understanding is alright. You've got Bill and Darcy to help you out! Although I don't think they remember anything from their past lives either. The three of you are smart enough to figure it out on your own, but you don't have time to waste anymore. Knowledge or not, David Jacobs needs your power. Break that vicious cycle, or another one of your friends will be next."

She takes Katherine's wrists in her hands and looks her in the eye. She has a young face, with eyes that know way too much and a mouth that can't reveal enough for Katherine to make sense of the situation. "Wake up Katherine", she demands and Katherine gets brutally yanked out of the dream.

There's water everywhere and her dress is getting fucking heavy, but someone drags her to the surface. Katherine sputters as she takes a few deep breaths and her saviour (she notices quite quickly that it's Bill) manages to take her to the shore. "How the fuck did we end up here?" Bill asks and Darcy, who's just climbed out of the lake, shrugs. "I don't know. Kath fell, I grabbed her and you grabbed me and now we're here." 

'Here' is in fact the garden of the demon's den. If the bathtub led to the DD, then where did the mirror lead to? As Darcy sneezes, she decides that those are questions for later. "Let's go boys, before we get sick." Bill nods, draping an arm over Darcy's shoulder. "Sure kiddo."

The interior has changed to a ballroom apparently and Darcy hums in appreciation. Before he can start describing which parts he likes the most and from which time period they are, the room changes back to a normal living room. Bill sighs. "Whatever. Why not." 

It draws the attention of a few newsies, one of them Race, who just full on laughs at the sight of his soaked friends. "You all took a swim in the lake?" Katherine shoves him, maybe a bit harder than necessary. "Fuck off. Are there any dry clothes here?" 

"We'll go ask Davey!" Elmer volunteers and drags Romeo with him. "Uhm..." Henry says as the two disappear from sight. "I think our children will soon return with less innocence than before. Let's pray for them." 

"Bismillah" Buttons starts solemnly and JoJo clasps their hands together, ending the short prayer with: "Amen." 

"I'm not an expert on religion, but I don't think that's how it works." Finch states. Both JoJo and Buttons shrug. "Eh."

Elmer and Romeo return, both yelling incoherently as they push bundles of clothes into the hands of Katherine, Bill and Darcy. They find themselves a bathroom to change in and while they're gone, Jack and David enter the living room, completely ignoring the sly looks their friends are giving them. 

When Katherine, Darcy and Bill return, David takes one look at both Darcy and Bill and sighs. "We've got larger clothes around here, give me a minute." He leaves the room again and immediately the newsies crowd Jack.

"So", Race starts, "it seems like you've got something to tell us." They look at him expectantly and Jack sighs. "You're all a bunch of no good curious brats. I'm not telling you anything, because nothing's official, ya know? We still gotta do the talking stuff."

"Jack you were putting your tongue in his throat."

"Romeo, you're a tactless, bitchy snitch."

David enters the room again and Jack frowns. "Dave, why did you go all the way around? It would've been easier to use the other door, you know." He gets a sheepish smile in return. "I wasn't looking at where I was going to be honest. A few extra steps never hurt anyone right?"

"I thought you said you were gonna get clothes", Romeo remarks and Jack notices that David has indeed come back empty handed. "Oh really?" David sounds surprised and Jack wants to make a joke about his faulty memory, but then the other door swings open.

"They're a bit dusty, but I think they'll do the job", David announces as he enters the room and he looks up from the clothes in his hands when he gets nothing but a silence as reaction. "Guys, what's going-Fuck."

"Four to go, David", the David without clothes in his hands says, face malicious and tone mocking. "Only four more."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys, missed the Saturday deadline again. School’s starting again and I don’t know if I can keep up the regular deadlines but I’ll try. Also I didn’t reply to some comments yet, but that’ll come too. I’m tired af y’all and school has just started. Thanks for all the people who read this shit and especially the ones who comment, it kinda makes my day


	12. Specs inside of JoJo('s head).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For a moment the two Davids stare each other down, David-with-the-clothes in something akin to panic and other-David with a smug, satisfied expression on his face. Then that David starts twitching and shifting, breaking his own facade. He changes from a hideous monster to a little girl to a crowd of people, to no one. The something that looked like David has disappeared, leaving the real David standing in the room, white as a sheet.
> 
> "Davey? What was-"
> 
> "Go home."

For a moment the two Davids stare each other down, David-with-the-clothes in something akin to panic and other-David with a smug, satisfied expression on his face. Then that David starts twitching and shifting, breaking his own facade. He changes from a hideous monster to a little girl to a crowd of people, to no one. The something that looked like David has disappeared, leaving the real David standing in the room, white as a sheet.

"Davey? What was-"

"Go home."

"What?" Jack reaches out for David, but the boy steps away from him before he can touch him. "I said, go home! This place doesn't welcome you anymore!" None of the other newsies move and Jack shakes his head. "Davey, what's going on? Just let us-"

"Leave." Nearly spitting out the words, David turns on his heels and exits the room, moving briskly and tensely. His body language screams 'uncomfortable', but he won't let them close enough to help.

"I shall take it upon me to escort you to the door", Ernst announces as the house shifts around them and there are more corridors than before. They are longer too and reminiscent of the hallways in old castles. "Let us go", Ernst says while using a candle holder to light the stone hallways.

He is silent as he leads them through the maze of hallways, not offering any form of explanation and Jack is unsure if he should ask for it. Suddenly Ernst whirls around and Jack wonders if he can read minds. "Please excuse me for a moment, I just remembered something. Wait here for me."

Not two seconds after Ernst glided through the nearest wall, Abby's head peaks through it. "Hi guys!" she whispers loudly and hops through the wall. "I've noticed that I'm quite a good thief!" she announces and grins at all of them. Race decides to humour her and kneels down next to her. "Really? What did you steal? A buncha diamonds?"

She giggles and opens up her hands. "No, it's something else that sparkles." In the bad lighting, it takes them a moment to recognise the item in her hands. "That's my fucking eye!" Blink suddenly yells as he feels under his eye patch to see if he's right. Abby nods proudly and runs away, eye still clutched in her hands. "Come back you little devil!" Blink doesn't even hesitate to take off after her."Give me my eye back!"

He sprints after the giggling girl and only after rounding a few corners, he notices that he's alone in the hallway. "Abby?" he calls out and wonders why no newsie followed him. His footsteps echo through the space and the only other sound he can hear is his own breathing. He takes another few steps, but then he stops. "Take a few deep breaths", he reminds himself and does exactly that. There's something unnerving in the air, a certain mood that has him clenching his fists.

Should it come to a fight, then he has nothing but his own fists. "You're a mad chihuahua with rabies", he repeats Tommy Boy's words, gaining courage from them. "Mad chihuahua with rabies. Mad chihuahua with rabies."

"I'm seriously starting to doubt the sanity of your whole group."

Blink whips around to face Abby, who's halfway in a wall. "Sorry for leaving you behind, I forgot you living people can't walk through. Follow me." She skips ahead and Blink notices that the path they're taking leads downwards. "Where are we going?"

"The basement", she replies and the skipping stops. She switches it up for a fast paced stride and her face turns serious. "You've got a photographic memory, right?" Blink frowns. "How do you know that?" She makes a half turn in his direction and smiles. "The dead have got a way of knowing the living. Anyway, there's a little visual spell I'm gonna show you and you need to remember it."

"Wouldn't Specs be more qualified for that sort of stuff?" She halts her stride again and looks up at him. "Technically, yes. But that spell has some bad memories for him and I'd rather not bring those back in a place that doesn't hold safety for him anymore. As long as you pretend you've never seen it, you're quite safe."

She opens a door and announces: "We're here!" The first thing Kid Blink notices, are the numerous paintings on the walls, an angry red that screams hostility. "You've got two minutes at most", Abby informs him in a singsong voice and floats above his head. "I'll be your guard." It doesn't even take Blink two minutes to imprint the images in his head. "Done", he announces within seconds and Abby gives him an impressed look. "That's cool. Let's reunite you with your group." Blink nods. "Yeah, they must be worried." With a grin, Abby shakes her head. "No, they won't be. For them it'll be like just a few seconds passed. This house isn't working with you guys anymore."

When they reunite with the others, Kid Blink doesn't get greeted by an overly worried Mush Meyers, so he knows that Abby spoke the truth. "Anyway, I've got my eye back, where's Ernst?"

"I could get you all out-"

"Mister Kelly, you forgot your jacket." Ernst strides over to Jack, with his jacket in his hands. "Oh, thanks." Jack says as Ernst hands it over to him. When he shrugs it on, he feels something in his pocket that definitely wasn't there before. He puts his hand in the pocket to retrieve the unknown item, but Ernst shakes his head almost unnoticeably. Jack drops his hand again and Ernst seems to relax a bit more.

"Are Rebecca and the twins not saying goodbye?" Abby shrugs. "I don't know about Becky, but the twins said they'd come. We can move towards the exit anyway, they'll find us if they want to."

Barely a few minutes pass before they do indeed run into Evan and Ethan. "Hello y'all!" Ethan shouts excitedly and does jazz hands. Ike scoffs at him, but Ethan pays him no mind. "We're saying goodbye to the all of you, it was nice knowing you. While it lasted at least."

"Are you guys really going to talk?" Abby whispers and hides behind Ernst's legs. "You know she'll hear it, there's no escaping her." The twins smile and ruffle her hair in affectionate manner. "Yeah, but we're done watching people disappear. We're taking a stand." They take a deep breath and turn their body towards the group.

"There are exactly four people who remember David Jacobs. It's Jacobs, not Yaakov by the way, it changed a while ago. These people are the following four: Les Jacobs, Medda Larkin, Bryan Denton and Spot Conlon. Find them and-" A flash of red light interrupts them, hitting them in the chest. The twins burst into pieces of light, that get absorbed by a monster as Abby wails.

"I presume you two are smarter?" The voice of the Lady in Red resounds through the air and Jack finally gets why no one dares to help David. Ernst shoves Abby a bit more behind him and nods. "We've been around long enough to know to not mess with your plans, ma'am."

She squints at them with distrust and Jack fears that she's gonna discover the object in his pocket somehow. Then, she turns up her nose. "Come", she says to the being at her side. It twitches and lets out a whimper. "Let us go", it cries softly, but the Red Lady ignores it and they leave. Almost immediately, the tension bleeds out of the room. Jack knows that all of them want answers, but he also knows that none will be given.

The first one to notice that there's something not quite right with Specs, is Romeo. They'd been walking side by side, chatting with subdued hand movements until Specs suddenly drops his hands and turns his head away from Romeo. He follows Specs' distant gaze, but doesn't see anything. He touches his arm to get his attention. "Specs, what's wrong?"

Specs snaps out of his daze and shakes his head. "Got the feeling I forgot something. It's probably nothing." Romeo crosses his arms and raises a brow. "If we're anything alike with our magicy shtick, I'm gonna say that ignoring your premonitions is probably a very bad idea."

At that moment, Specs whirls around, so Romeo does too. Rebecca waves awkwardly at them and then Abby spots her too. "Hi Becky!" She bounces over to her and Rebecca meets her halfway. They exchange a few looks and then the happy expression on Abby's face morphs into an angry one. "Ethan and Evan are gone, do you want to be the next one?" As Rebecca shakes her head, she signs something behind her back so Abby doesn't see it. It's some weird combination of 'yoyo' and the letter 'J'.

Specs does a quick headcount and as he scans the group, he's certain someone's not there. "Hey, did we leave anyone behind? Because we're either missing someone or I can't count."

"Probably the second one."

"Shut up Albert. Is anyone missing a buddy?" The newsies look around and it seems like everyone's there. The rich kid gang is complete, dumb duo is there too, Jack and Crutchie are present, the twins, Blush, Tommy Boy, Henry, Finch, Elmer and Buttons. Buttons is standing next to Elmer and Specs has the feeling that the problem is somewhere there, but he can't focus hard enough to come to a definite conclusion.

"Specs, are you okay? You're swaying a bit. Also, your arm is lighting up in green and yellow. Please don't become a yellow patterned hulk." He's vaguely aware of Romeo shaking his arm, but his head is so heavy and he leans it against a wall. His vision is going black and he's becoming uncomfortably warm. "Move", that's definitely Mush and he gently lays him down on the floor. "Tommy Boy, keep his legs raised. Finch, keep track of time and give me a warning when we've passed the two minute mark."

That's the last thing Specs hears before he wakes up somewhere else. The switch happens swiftly and Specs becomes the backseat driver in someone else's body. The person to whom the body belongs to is freaking out and after a few seconds, Specs can see the world from their point of view. Wow. Not needing glasses is super nice!

Back to the subject. He tries to look at this person's arm, but comes to the conclusion that he's not in charge and that all he can do is wait. "Well then. Guess I'm just waiting in here."

"Holy fuck, Specs are you in my head?" That voice is known to him, he just can't place it yet. "Knock knock?" he says in an uncertain manner and the other person gasps. "Holy shiiit. It's me, JoJo by the way." JoJo? Oh fuck, he'd completely forgotten about his friend. "Wait a sec, I'm gonna try to get you out of my head." JoJo raises their right hand, a bright green and yellow mark lighting up their arm. They take a deep breath and close their eyes. "Okay, you can open your eyes Specs."

When he does as he's told, Specs finds himself sorta floating above JoJo's head. "Cool. I'm a ghost now." JoJo snorts. "I don't think that's what's going on, but frankly, I've got no idea what's going on."

"Yeah, I've got vague theories, but all in all I've got no certainty about anything. Oh, by the way, don't freak out about this but I totally forgot you existed for a moment."

"Ah yes. A totally casual sentence that is not at all worrying."

"We should get ourselves back to the group. Where are we anyway?" JoJo shrugs. "I don't know. That red woman dragged me away from you all and no one noticed. She threw me in this room and I was freaking out until you showed up." Specs looks JoJo up and down and the glowing mark on their arm perfectly matches the one on Specs' arm. "I'm going to guess that you're a witch and that she's after you."

"Well then. Another revelation that makes no sense. Can we please get out of here?" Specs nods and lets his eyes roll back in the back of his head. When his eyes resume their previous position, they shine in a soft green as he uses them to look for the aura's of his friends. "Found em, follow me." JoJo nods and jogs to keep up with Specs. Floating is apparently faster than walking.

"I think he's regaining consciousness", someone says and Specs' fingers twitch. He was going for an eyeroll, but apparently that isn't happening yet. His eyes flutter open and as he blinks a few times, his friends come into view. Then they suddenly turn around and Specs leans on his elbows to see what they're looking at. It's JoJo, rounding the corner as they wave at all of them. "Hey dickheads, thanks for forgetting I exist."

A tense moment where everyone just stares at JoJo in animosity. Then Buttons shoots up and tackles JoJo in a bear hug. After they replace their embrace with casual handholding, Buttons turns towards the ghosts. "Get us out of here. We got the hint, we're not welcome. If anything happens to any of the people here, I will personally eradicate you."

Within minutes, they're outside the house. Abby and Rebecca wave them goodbye, but Ernst removes the girls from the doorway and closes the door.

"Well, that was a load of shit", Tommy Boy says, breaking the uncomfortable silence that hung over the group. "We should go home", Henry adds and Specs shakes his head. "No, I think we're closer to solving whatever is going that we've ever been before. I've also got the feeling that we don't have a lot of time to solve this case left. We're a whole group of people, there's no way that there's absolutely nothing that we can do."

"I could ask mom if you all can sleep over? I know she kicked us out, but I think she'll make an exception if somebody's in danger", Jack ponders and Specs thinks about it for a minute. "I think a sleep over is a good idea, but we should talk to an adult who actually knows stuff about magic. I think it's time to talk with my granny."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Henlo everyone, hit me up on tumblr if u want (@rivertellsstories). Thanks 4 reading (nd commenting if u do that. Love that shit). Next chapter features Specs' grandma, the war criminal :)


	13. The newsies try to gather their thoughts. It's a hard proces and Specs' grandma certainly isn't helping.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They arrive at Specs house in an enormous clique of bikes. Bill and Darcy, two people who aren't used to sitting on the back of a bike ridden by a newsie,couldn't look happier to be able to get of the bikes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got so much motivation from the pan with a plan leaving numerous comments, so here's a little update for y'all

They arrive at Specs house in an enormous clique of bikes. Bill and Darcy, two people who aren't used to sitting on the back of a bike ridden by a newsie,couldn't look happier to be able to get of the bikes. "Why are there so many cats?" Elmer asks in a curious tone and Specs explains: "They're my grandma's familiars. She likes to know what's going on in the city, so she's got a lot of them."

He digs through his backpack in search of his keys and the door cracks open on its own."So we really aren't going to pretend to be normal anymore huh?" he remarks and beckons the horde of people inside. "Please take your shoes off before entering the living area, I don't want to clean after you pigs." 

The living room is dark,only illuminated by a single candle. The flame flickers, becomes slightly bigger and then suddenly gets extinguished, taking the only source of light away. No sounds can be heard, until suddenly someone says: "Boo", behind Elmer. The boy jumps and whirls around screaming. 

"Grand-mère,laisse-le tranquille s'il vous plaît", Specs sighs and the old woman puts her hands up. "Oh, now you're suddenly 'mature' and 'responsible'?" Specs' grandma claps twice in her hands and all the lights spring on. "Excuse me, I'm more mature than you've ever been in your whole ass life."

"Yesterday you tried to put your foot in your mouth after raising it behind your head because I said you couldn't."

"Touché. But I succeeded so you can suck it."

"I have never sucked a damn thing in my life, that was your grandfather's job." A moment of horrified silence follows and then Specs starts screaming and storms out of the room, slamming the door behind him. "''Twas but a joke, you know I ain't interested in that aspect of a relationship. Come back, you dramatic bitch." The door reopens and Specs leans against the doorframe. "Quoi de fuck did you just call me? I may not be able to hear you, but I know you good enough to know that you're shittalking me." 

"Whatever. You and your troop of weird ducklings can help me make dinner and then we'll talk." Within seconds, Henry has taken over the kitchen and divided the newsies into small groups that each have their own tasks to complete. "Damn. I'm keeping that one", Specs' grandma says with a pipe in her mouth while sitting on the kitchen island. "At least he can cook." Specs gives her an indignant huff. "I'm not going to react to that. Shut up. I don't like you." She exhales and the smoke forms a hand that flicks Specs on the forehead. "Be fucking polite."

"I am polite. Nothing you say can hurt me anymore, I will ignore you like an adult."

"Your curls look stupid."

Specs slams his knife down with fervour. "My curls look fucking charming!"

"Excuse me ma'am, could you tell us your name? Because I keep referring to you as 'Specs' grandma' in my head and it's kinda weird." She cocks her head and stares Mike down. "You may refer to me as General, if that makes you more comfortable." A little bit unnerved,he nods. "Yes, General."

She gives him a piercing glare until Specs flings a towel at her. "Stop bullying my friends!" She rolls her eyes. "You're my grandson. There's no way you aren't bullying them more." Specs rocks awkwardly on his heels. "Look. What I do, has got nothing to do with this. I get to bully my friends, you don't." 

"Fine. Just call me by my last name, it's the same as Specs'." Ike smiles stiffly. "We don't know Specs' last name, General. Nor his first one for that matter." She gives her grandson a flat look. "Really?" 

"Don't tell 'em grandma, I'm trying to win a bet. The person who has their full name hidden the longest, wins five bucks from every newsie. I want to win."

"That's not very cash money of you."

"It's very much cash and very much money of me. Please grandma, allow me this one pleasure." She shrugs. "Sure thing, mister Lefay." Specs smiles and then his shoulders drop in realisation. "I hate you", he says in an unhappy tone. "Let's go, you versus me." He puts his hands up in a boxing position and his grandma raises her hand. As he sees the gentle pink glow around it Specs attempts to back out. "C'était jusqu'une blague, grand-mère!"

"Dommage."

The exact translation may be a mystery to most of the newsies, the vibe gets transferred nonetheless.The visual of Specs getting blasted through the front door adds to the scene too. Mildly concerned, Jack asks: "Is he alright?" Grandma Lefay takes another inhale from her pipe. "Yeah, give him a minute and he'll be back with ten times the dramatics. It runs in the family."

Specs bursts through the door after exactly fifty-nine seconds and starts yelling in French. He moves his arm and green/yellow light shoots towards his grandmother, who flicks it into oblivion with a small movement of her hand. She takes notice of the mark on her grandson's arm and the newly added yellow into his magic. "You've learned a new trick", she states and points her pipe at his arm.

Romeo, bless his soul, sees the matching marks on Specs' and JoJo's arms and feels obligated to tell everyone what's going on, to share the knowledge he's recently learned. "Specs and JoJo did the bondage", he explains, only vaguely remembering the actual terminology.

Immediately, Buttons gasps in mock offence. "Jorgelino Josephino De La Guerra, are you cheating on me with Specs? And you've done bondage with him? I thought you were a good and proper Christian!" She barely holds it together throughout her spiel and cries with laughter as Specs massages his temples.

"You've got the spirit, but you're a bit confused Romeo dearest. We formed a Bond. We did not do bondage, that's something else." Romeo gives Specs a wide eyed look and he looks innocent, impressionable. "Specs, what is bondage?"

If Specs was a religious man, this would've been the moment he'd stop believing in God. "Well Romeo, when people love each other very much, they sometimes want to tie the other up and fuck 'em senseless. We call this phenomenon, bondage. What me and JoJo did however, is Bonding. It's an agreement between a witch and a familiar, where a familiar can borrow their witches' magic in return for their Vision which can be used to detect magic or people with magical qualities."

"Oh." Romeo looks like he has seen both heaven and hell at the same time. "I don't know how to feel 'bout that. For all the people who have tried bondage in this room, please shut up. I don't want to know." 

"By the way, when did this Bonding thing happen?" Buttons interjects and Specs shrugs. "No idea." He looks to JoJo, who also shrugs. "Got no clue."

"Let's have dinner first and then discuss the reason all of you turned up at our house. I think there might be more connections than you all might see at this moment." After they've eaten and worshipped Henry and his cooking skills for a minute or two, they gather around the salon table and Madame Lefay puts a few sheets of paper on it and with a pen in her hand, she sighs. "Good, where does this story of yours start?"

"Two years ago", Albert promptly says. "With the murder in the demon's den and the family that fled." 

"About that...", Elmer starts unsure of himself and plays with the hem of his shirt for a bit. "I don't remember no murder? The tale goes around my house as a kidnapping."

Bill, who's been pretty quiet until that moment raises his hand. "I thought someone accidentally fell into the lake."

"Seems like we're off to a rocky start", Madame Lefay hums and thinks all the stories over. "But a common theme seems to be keeping people away. Continue from that point."

Jack takes over. "We use the DD as our 'clubhouse' so to speak. Weird shit happens. We meet David Jacobs, a boy who has been stuck in that house for two years and can not leave. He also knows next to nothing about himself and looks like he could faint every moment. He gets chased by some weird monster on a nightly basis. Me and Kathy encountered this thing and during this night, we also met the first ghost. She's a nice lady with the name Leah."

"I think that around this time, Mike and I got attacked in our bedrooms. Some freakish monster was looking for something." Mike shakes his head. "Not something, someone."

"I got a book." JoJo digs through their backpack, in search of the black notebook they got. "It's a grimoire and I thought it was my mom's at first." Interested, Madame Lefay leans forward. "She a witch?" JoJo pulls the grimoire out of their backpack with a triumphant "Aha!". Specs informs his grandma that he's met JoJo's mom and that her magical abilities didn't reach further than the occasional help in boosting health. "I also think she's got no knowledge about the place we come from."

"Here you go." As soon as JoJo slams their grimoire on the table, Specs flings it off of it, Bill and Darcy draw themselves back and Romeo outright hisses at it. The book drops down to the floor and Crutchie hums. "That does not look ideal."

"That things smells foul", Darcy says with a turned up nose. "It stenches like death", Specs adds with a scowl. "Pick that thing back up and bring it here", Madame Lefay commands and Specs tries to, but hisses after touching it and drops it again. "That thing fucking burns. I don't think it likes me very much."

JoJo walks over, picks it up without a problem and sits themselves down on the floor again. They open it on the last page and let out a: "Huh. There was something written on here the last time I opened this. It said 'you're next'."

"More good news. Is there anything else in that book that could be of use?" JoJo moves to hand over the grimoire, but Madame Lefay pulls her hands back before they can. "Nu'uh, I ain't touching that. You can turn the pages while I look."

JoJo turns the pages slowly and one of the cats sits down on the old lady's lap. She closes her own eyes and the cat brings its face closer as though it's reading it in her place. "They're just your everyday spells. A good luck charm, a little pain reliever, something to make your plants grow faster,... This is your typical grimoire for a beginning witch, but it's not yours. Someone is targeting you kid, which is just great."

"Cool", JoJo sighs and flops facedown on the floor. "I dun wanna be chased. Make it stop, old lady." 

"I'm trying, young fucker. Give me more info."   
Katherine politely raises her hand. "May I?" Madame Lefay gives her to go ahead. 

"I think we should've mentioned that David Jacobs does not seem to exist, there are no track records of him. Yet Darcy remembered him or at least for a while. In this time he mentioned that we as a group knew him, but then we found Darcy unconscious in the bathroom. When he woke up, he had no idea who David was. There were two portals opened, one in the bath and one in the mirror. I used the one in the bath and Bill and Darcy followed me. We ended up at the demon's den."

Katherine stops for a minute and mulls over what she said, in case she forgot something. "Oh! I also dreamed I met my past self, who told me I needed to go through puberty!"

"Groooooosss", Elmer calls out and Jack smacks him softly on the head. "Shaddap and let the lady talk."

"Thank you. She was like, tiny and kind of obnoxious."

Race taps her thigh with his foot and grins. "So just you, huh?"

Groaning, Katherine slams her hands together and Race floats up to the ceiling. And stays there. "I've noticed that I can do some small magicy shit too, but I don't know any spells. Anyway, can someone help me get Race down? I don't know how to do it."

"Sure", Bill sighs and takes her right hand as Darcy reaches for her left one. When their fingertips meet, lilac, pink and a golden yellow light swirls around their hands and settle on the back of them, staining them permanently. "Would'ya look at that, the miss has chosen her familiars."

"Great, I've got no idea what to do", Bill announces and Darcy agrees with a tiny movement of his head. "Listen to her, she'll tell you", Specs gently assists and a little bit later, Race falls to the floor and right before he hits the floor at an alarmingly high speed, Bill raises his hand and moves it softly downwards. Race reconnects with the floor gently instead of getting slammed into it. "Thanks man."

"Oh, I just remembered that Ernst gave me something! Ernst is one of the ghosts, by the way", Jack hastily adds and ploughs through his jacket in search of the item. "Here it is! It's a..."

"Book", Crutchie finishes for him. "It's an object with letters in it. You can read it."

"Crutchie, I'm not that fucking stupid, I know what a book is. The only reason you're getting away with treating me like this, is because you're my best friend." Jack opens the book and a little sticky note flutters out of it. Crutchie picks it up and reads it out loud.

"Compare this family tree to the one you can find literally elsewhere. Combine it with the spell Abby gave you and make a smart conclusion."

"Which family do you need?" Darcy asks, getting out his phone and Jack replies with: "Jacobs." When Darcy pulls up the documents, he sets his phone next to the picture filled book. The first person to notice the differences, is Finch. "There are people missing", he says and points out several people who are in the photobook, but not in official registers.

"Holy fuck, here's a drawing of that scary red lady and Ernst." Mush picks it up and gasps. "Oh my god, they had a child together! Look, here it says 'to my beloved wife and daughter'!"

Jack takes a closer look at the drawing and discerns Ernst, the Lady in Red and...Leah. "Darcy, could you look up 'Leah Yaakov' for me?" Katherine shoots him a meaningful glance and Romeo's head shoots up after he's seen the drawing. "I dreamed about that woman. She died on a pyre. Mister Denton from English was there too for some reason."

Albert snorts. "A very realistic dream, so it seems."

Darcy clicks his tongue and shows the room his phone. "It is. Sorta. Leah Yaakov died in the seventeenth century. She was accused of witchcraft and burned on the pyre, leaving her new-born child in the hands of her mother and father. Her mom killed her father and child a few years after that."

"Jesus Christ", Jack breathes and Kid Blink reaches for the empty papers on the table. As he draws the spell Abby made him imprint in his brain, Specs abruptly stands up. "Please excuse me", he says in a shaky voice and leaves the room rapidly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm rivertellsstories on Tumblr for those who r interested :) Next chapter: Specs angst. And if I get there, Les angst :)


	14. Sad Specs Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As soon as her grandson leaves the room, grandma Lefay gets of the kitchen island and follows him. He's a fast one, that's for sure, but she knows him well enough to pinpoint where he'd gone too.
> 
> When she steps onto the balcony and finds him there, legs dangling over the edge, her prediction gets confirmed. His head is angled towards the dark sky, but the emptiness in his eyes tells her he's seeing none of it. His hands are visibly shaking and she wonders if he's even breathing. Hastily, she goes back inside, grabs the shock blanket and drapes it over his legs. Not his shoulders yet, or it'll get worse.
> 
> The contact with the solid object seems to register somewhere in his mind, as he plays with a few loose edges. She checks his breathing and when it seems to be normal, she starts talking in a soft voice, but keeping it loud enough to be hearable. She'd sign to him, but he wouldn't see it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo, murder happens so if u dun like that, don't read it babes. U won't miss important plot points.

As soon as her grandson leaves the room, grandma Lefay gets of the kitchen island and follows him. He's a fast one, that's for sure, but she knows him well enough to pinpoint where he'd gone too.

When she steps onto the balcony and finds him there, legs dangling over the edge, her prediction gets confirmed. His head is angled towards the dark sky, but the emptiness in his eyes tells her he's seeing none of it. His hands are visibly shaking and she wonders if he's even breathing. Hastily, she goes back inside, grabs the shock blanket and drapes it over his legs. Not his shoulders yet, or it'll get worse.

The contact with the solid object seems to register somewhere in his mind, as he plays with a few loose edges. She checks his breathing and when it seems to be normal, she starts talking in a soft voice, but keeping it loud enough to be hearable. She'd sign to him, but he wouldn't see it.

It takes a while, but then he reaches out for her. It's a tiny movement of his hand, turning it towards her and she gently takes it. While continuously drawing circles in the back of his hand (it's strange, she thinks, that when the first time she did this is hand was so much smaller), she tells him the date, the time, reminds him that he's safe and doesn't have to keep still. "C'est juste moi. Tu es en sécurité, mon cher."

And then his whole stature collapses. His shoulders hunch, he drops his head down and she knows that he's back. She pries the blanket from his fingers and drapes it over his shoulders. With a steady hand, she helps him sit down on the floor and he huddles in on himself. "Specs, look at me, there's no need to hide", she reminds him and sits down next to him. Immediately, he hides his face in her neck, shivering like he's got a really bad cold. "Granny's here, you're okay. You can move, nothing bad will happen."

After a few heartbeats (too fast, his heart is beating too fast), he looks up and meets her eyes, tear tracks still fresh on his face. With a handkerchief, she wipes them away. "Breathe for me darling." He's familiar with the process (she wishes he didn't have to be) and after a few stuttering breaths, his breathing evens out. "What do you need?"

He closes his eyes for a few seconds and for a moment, she fears that he's slipped back into it. Then he opens his eyes again and lays his head on her shoulder. Funny how much he has to lean down for that. "Something warm to drink, please. No close touching and also no silence."

"I'll get you something, shall I put on the radio or call one of your friends?"

Fumbling with the blanket, he shrugs: "The radio is fine." She suppresses the urge to roll her eyes, but sighs, making sure he can hear that she isn't mocking him. "Alright, which one of your friends do I have to get?" Nervously, he shakes his head. "I don't want to bother them, it's fine."

Right at that moment, someone knocks on the door in a very polite manner. "Yeah?" she calls out and the little one that she actually does know (Romeo. His name is Romeo), peaks his head around the corner. "Uhm...I wanted to check if everything was alright, but it seems like it is, so I'll be going again."

"Wait", she says and gestures at him to come join them on the balcony. On nothing but socks, he shuffles into the evening air. "Can you hold him company for a minute? I'm gonna make some tea." The boy quickly agrees and she tells him a few things he certainly should not do. "Don't hug him or initiate any other contact that could feel restrictive. Also, make some noise, he doesn't like the quiet. Alert me immediately if you think something's wrong, alright?" He salutes and she leaves her grandson in the care of his friend.

Hesitantly, Romeo sits down on the balcony floor, leaving a few feet between him and Specs. A tired smile appears on Specs' lips and he beckons Romeo closer. When he's close enough, Specs leans on his shoulder, letting their bodies touch without freaking himself out. As subtly as he can, Romeo looks at Specs, taking notice of his closed eyes and the puffiness of them. He looks thoroughly exhausted and drained.

Romeo finds it a strange look on him. Specs had always seemed the most laid back and chill of the group, moving through life with a raised head and no worries on his back, unless he decided to take someone else's worries with him. "Can I touch you? I want to hold your hand." Specs nods and Romeo takes his hands in his own.

He remembers Specs' grandma telling him that Specs needed noise, so he starts providing it. With a voice full of intonation, he starts narrating the crazy shenanigans he and Elmer pulled in class. There's plenty of dramatic sound effects involved and a small smile shines through on Specs' face. Then he sighs and pulls himself away from Romeo, letting his head thunk against the wall behind him. "Now there's a story I should tell y'all."

"Are you ready for that?" He gives Specs a questioning gaze and Specs sighs, taking his glasses off. While furiously wiping at non-existent dust, he sighs. "Not really. But I'd rather deal with it sooner than later, I honestly want you guys to know. The thing is, I'm pretty sure I am not able to tell it to the whole group. I think I'll ask my grandma to do it."

Speaking of the devil, she returns with two steaming mugs and an extra blanket floating behind her. She kneels in front of him and asks him if he's feeling alright. "Yeah", he breathes and plays with the mug. "Could you maybe...if it's not too much, would you..can you, maybe..." He's tripping over words and she calmly places a hand on his knee. "Keep breathing. Tell me what you want and I'll get it, it's okay. I'm here to help."

"Could you tell the guys what happened? Like, ev...everything", he stutters and she nods. "Sure, do you want to come inside or-" He shakes his head and Romeo awkwardly waves at her. "I'mma stay with Specs." He turns toward his friends. "I mean, if that's alright with you." With a nod, the boy agrees and Specs' grandma goes back inside.

For a while, neither of them says anything and they stay closely huddled together, blankets draped over them. Nipping at his tea, Specs opens his mouth. "Did you know that I can't stand the whir...whir-ring...FUCK, I swear I can talk." Romeo gives him a soft pat on the shoulder. "Take your time honey." Exhaling loudly, Specs continues. "Whirring of coffee machines?"

There's no need for Romeo to answer, because he knows that Specs is only trying to find a starting point in his story. "Where do I even start? A fun fact, me and my grandma were born at the Other Side of the Veil, it's a world where magic's a lot more common. An..anoth... an-oth-er ffun fact. Oh my god, that's fucking it. I'm just gonna sssign it. I went to a spee-speech therapist for this, for this, this shit, but apparently it's just a fun side effect of ptsd!"

When Specs restarts his tale, there's no stuttering, but his hands are shaking slightly and Romeo wonders what sort of story he's gonna get told.

"So, 'twas the morning of my sixth birthday and my dad, my parent and I were hanging in the kitchen, as you do when you're in that stage right before eating breakfast where you just enjoy being a family for a bit. I was hyperactive as fuck, bouncing all over the kitchen because it was my birthday!"

"My dad calls me over and gives me this stone, engraved with some spell I've never seen before in my life and tells me to activate it, so of course I do it. I mean, this is my dad, what could possibly go wrong?" Specs' hands drop down to his lap and a shudder runs through his body. After running his hands through his hair in a distressed manner, he continues.

"Barely two seconds later I'm twitching on the floor and my parent is screaming, while I've got absolutely no clue about what's happening. It's like all my magic has disappeared and that shit makes you tired man. Was I born a witch, that would've killed me, but alas I wasn't. Fun fact: my dad did not know that. Me neither at the time, to be honest."

Specs is trying to lighten the story with his choice of words, but Romeo still catches on on what the fuck he just told him. His own father tried to kill him.

"My parent ran over to me and saw I was still alive and they did some really fast thinking. They drew a little spell on my back, to make me look like I died, eyes wide and unseeing, that sort of shit. They held me as they screamed at my father that he'd killed their son and my dad stood there and watched. Then he raised his hand and all over my parent's body were little pieces of that horrible, horrible spell. He had left them there while kissing them, stroking his thumb over the back of their hand as they walked hand in hand... Every time they touched each other in what was supposed to be a loving way, he'd been putting his witch under a spell."

"My parent did not scream. There was no time for that and since they were holding me, they fell on top of me. Now you may wonder, why would my dad kill his spouse like that? Well, my dad was my parent's familiar. That specific spell transfers all the power from a witch to their familiar, killing the witch while raising the familiar to the status of a witch."

"While I laid there, trapped under my parent's body and scared out of my mind, the whirring of that goddamn coffee machine was one of the only sounds I could hear. I can not stand it anymore. Same goes for small spaces, it reminds me of...that."

"I got pretty lucky though, because my grandparents showed up about two hours later. My parent apparently invited them for a little surprise party. The first one to enter was my grandpa and he got shot on sight. Or well, the magical equivalent of it. My grandma, a seasoned war veteran, did a lot better against my dad and she managed to put him down. For good. Standing there, in the middle of the bodies of her loved ones, she called the cops. "

"They arrived and a rookie almost fell over my arm. I flinched heavily at that and then it gets kind of hazy for me. That thing Blink drew, is another spell with the one that killed my parent as its base. I don't know why someone would experiment with that shit, but by God, I loathe it."

The tears that have been building up in Specs' eyes finally spill and he takes off his glasses to rub his eyes. As he sobs, Romeo sits as close as Specs'll allow him too and strokes his arm, hoping the motion will soothe him at least a little bit. "I hate it", Specs cries and dissolves further into tears. "I fucking hate it."

Romeo wishes he could do more for his friend, but doesn't want to set him off either. "Is there anything I can do right now to make you feel better? I want to help, but I don't know how to do that."

Specs lays his head down in Romeo's lap. "Could you touch my hair? I'm sorry if it's weird but it calms me down." Without hesitation, Romeo lets his fingers trail through Specs' curls. "I got ya babe." He keeps the touching up until the sobs die down and his breathing evens out. Specs falls asleep on his lap, utterly exhausted.

When Grandma Lefay reenters the balcony, Romeo's pretty close to falling asleep too. "Hey kid. Did he tell you what happened?" Romeo gives her a small, tired nod. "I've got a question though, if you don't mind." He yawns and Madame Lefay laughs and tousles his hair. "Ask away kiddo."

"Why did you guys move here?"

She smooths out the wrinkles in her skirt and takes her pipe out of her pocket. She twirls around in her hand, considering a smoke for a second, but puts it away again. "I was pretty famous over there, since I'm sort of a war hero/criminal. Depends on who you ask. Anyway, for a long ass time, familiars were treated as slaves and I did not agree with that. Started a revolution, gained human rights for those people. The usual shebang you know, sometimes you gotta force the change to happen."

"So there was a frail peace between witches and familiars, but then the thing with Specs' parents happened and fuelled by the media, it became a massive dispute. Shitty witches saw this as a confirmation of the 'fact' that familiars should be put under forceful control again. Familiars felt disappointed and threatened. A lot of his classmates felt the need to take it out on him. I did not know about this until he came home with a broken arm one day. He didn't tell me anything and even then, I had to ask a teacher about what the fuck was going on."

"That's where I drew the line. That world had nothing to offer us anymore, so I decided that we'd take the jump to this one. Before we jumped, Specs asked me if the jump was safe and I took his hand and said: 'Of course it's safe, just hold my hand. We're getting through this together.' Truth is, I didn't really know if it was safe, I just sorta assumed it was."

"I can now say that it was a safe, but not very good way of travelling. I got yeeted to France, Specs ended up in the good ol' USA. After two years we found each other and I got official custody of him. At first it was like living with a stranger, but we're good now."

Romeo looks down at the sleeping Specs. "This is a lot to take in." Madame Lefay nods. "I can understand that, but it's getting late. You should go to sleep, tomorrow is the day of action. I'll take care of him", she points at her grandson. Romeo hesitantly stops petting Specs' hair and gives her an unsure look. In return, she gives him a small smile. "Go to bed kid, I've got this. Trust me."

When Romeo enters the living room, he gets greeted by the sight of newsies distributed all over the floor. He suppresses a giggle and tiptoes around the bodies in the dark, trying to find his older brother. When he finds Race, arms splayed with one hand in Albert's face, he kneels down and pokes Race. With a tired "Huh?" Race wakes up and Romeo whispers: "Can I sleep with you tonight?" Race opens his arms. "Come hither brother." With a snort, Romeo lays down beside him.

"Are you alright?" Race asks in a soft voice and Romeo hums. "You know that feeling when you feel for someone else so much and want to help without being invasive? I'm a smoothie made off 'Please-let-me-help' and 'I-recognise-that-this-is-something-I-can't-really-help-with'." Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, Race yawns. "If that ain't a fucking mood. But I think for now, we just keep his triggers in mind and be the bestestest friends ever. If he wants to talk, we'll listen."

"You know Racer, sometimes you say smart shit."

"Here's another smart saying by yours truly: Go to sleep."

"G'night Race." Race affectionally places a kiss on Romeo's head. "G'night Romeo."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Henlo everyone I'm rivertellsstories on Tumblr if u want to know :) thanks for reading and commenting if u do that, it makes me go UwU


	15. After 15 chapters, Les Jacobs finally makes an appearance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Ernst watches David laying on the bed, sweating profusely. "Davey, you've gotta stay", Abby whines and grabs his hand. When she gets no reaction, she shakes his hand. "Davey! Wake up! Don't let her get you!" Finally, his eyes crack open with difficulty and he gasps deeply. It sounds painful, Ernst thinks as he watches the scene, back against the door._
> 
> _"I'm fine", he pants, but the dark circles beneath his eyes, trembling fingers and violent shivering betray him. Becky draws herself up on the bed and nestles close against David. It's a sweet gesture, but she's got no body to provide warmth with. ___

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick warning, this chapter starts with someone getting their nails pulled out. I don't describe it though, it's more of a mention.

_Ernst watches David laying on the bed, sweating profusely. "Davey, you've gotta stay", Abby whines and grabs his hand. When she gets no reaction, she shakes his hand. "Davey! Wake up! Don't let her get you!" Finally, his eyes crack open with difficulty and he gasps deeply. It sounds painful, Ernst thinks as he watches the scene, back against the door._

_"I'm fine", he pants, but the dark circles beneath his eyes, trembling fingers and violent shivering betray him. Becky draws herself up on the bed and nestles close against David. It's a sweet gesture, but she's got no body to provide warmth with._

_The banging on the door restarts again and David raises his head. "It's gonna break down, isn't it?" Ernst knows that it's a statement, not a question but he nods nonetheless. "Fuck", David exhales and lets his head drop down unto the cushion again. The door starts creaking once more and David raises his hand, putting whatever energy he has left in it. Then he sees the little symbols on his nails glowing up and he Ernst sees the moment where he gets an idea right in front of him. "Rip my nails off and put 'em on the door. It'll heal quickly anyway."_

_Rebecca grabs David's arm in distress, but Ernst understands the reasoning behind it. Those little charms should last them through the night. "That hurts a lot Davey", Abby says and the certainty in her voice makes Ernst wonder what kind of life she has led. "We should knock you out first", she continues. "It'll probably less painful that way."_

_As Rebecca hides her face in her hand, Abby gently lulls David to sleep. When she takes hold of the sleeping boy's hand, Ernst looks away. He hopes David stays asleep while Abby works her magic. ___

__Specs wakes up on the balcony, listening to the ticking of knitting needles. When he pushes himself up on his elbows, he gets greeted by the familiar sight of his grandmother. He snorts at the mountains of clothes that are surrounding them. "Granny, what are you doing?" The countless hovering knitting needles go on with their task as his grandma greets him._ _

__"Morning. Those friends of yours need fresh clothes. Also, do me a favour and run to the grocery store. I don't have the ability to feed that many children. Take some toothbrushes too, I don't want smell filthy teenage morning breath."_ _

__"That's valid. Do I have to pay or can I just steal that shit?"_ _

__"I'm sure you can, but you may not. Also, do you want to know the conclusions we came to yesterday? It's bad, I'm warning ya." Specs considers it for a moment. "I'm in this whether I want to or not. I'll have to face it eventually and I'd rather receive a heads-up."_ _

__"First thing you need to know is that we found the name of that lady dressed in red. She went by Dobah Yaakov, a woman married to Ernst Yaakov and as you know, had a daughter Leah that was burned on the stake, leaving her child in her mother's care. Dobah Yaakov probably pulled the same stunt your father did, on her own husband."_ _

__"The spell your eyepatched friend showed us, is some fucked up combination of Demagicalisation, Forgetting and Transport of Magic. Separation of Mind and Body is a recently added component of that spell too. Members of that family keep getting erased from history and besides being related by blood, they're also related by the fact that they're all witches. So, someone's preying on witches, extracting their magic and making them disappear completely. I wonder where their magic goes to. What does she want to do with it? Why is she separating mind and body now?"_ _

__Specs thinks about it. "Maybe she's learned something? I mean, if I learn a better way to solve math problems, Imma use that shit." Madame Lefay clicks her tongue in annoyance. "I wish I knew what the fuck is going on. Are you alright by the way?"_ _

__"Yeah. But I'm going to go grocery shopping now. See ya later." He kisses her on the cheek, jumps from the balcony and before he hits the floor, his shape changes and as she watches the owl fly away, she yells: "Be safe and turn back in a place where no one can see it!"_ _

__Romeo wakes up with Elmer's face just a little bit too close for comfort. "Elmer, what the fuck are you doing?" Elmer pulls his face back and hums. "Everybody's already up and gathering at the table. I wanted to wake you up." As Romeo sits up, he gets waved at by the group of people sitting at the table. "Morning sunshine." Romeo falls back on his back and sighs dramatically. "I want more sleep."_ _

__"Don't we all", Jack comments. "But we've gotta do some interviewing today!" At Romeo's look of confusion, Jack explains the conclusions and plan they made the day before._ _

__"After that not very helpful information, we decided that we have four people who still remember David, so we're gonna interview them. Hopefully they know something." Nodding, Romeo scans the room. "Where's Specs?"_ _

__Grandma Lefay answers him. "Getting bread. He should be back about-" At that moment, the front door opens and Specs walks in, drenched in sweat while carrying a shitload of bags. "G'morning y'all, I've got the bred."_ _

__"Why are you so fucking sweaty? I told you to pick up toothbrushes because I don't want to deal with teenage smell and now you come into my house, sweating like a fucking pig."_ _

__"Jesus Christ woman, I ran the way back. Here I am, faithfully slaving away in what is supposed to be my beautiful, beautiful youth and you just keep yelling at me. I deserve better."_ _

__"Whatever Juls, go take a fucking shower."_ _

__Tommy Boy's head snaps up and he points at Specs and yells. "HA FUCKERS PAY UP, I WON! Bow down to me, Juls Lefay." Specs points and yells back. "I have not lost yet! Juls is a nickname, fucker!" All of the newsies start shouting suggestions._ _

__"Julian!" "Juel?" "Joel?" "Abraham." "Jullius." "Julito." "Juliet."_ _

__"No. Just stop", Specs sighs, glaring daggers at his grandma. "Also, learn to shut your fucking mouth." She arches an eyebrow. "Watch your language young man, we're crossing lines and I'm not here for it." Specs backs down with a nod. "Basic politeness?"_ _

__"You know it, Julien Mathis Lefay."_ _

__There's a beat of silence and then the screaming begins again as Tommy Boy collects his prize triumphantly. "Julien?" Race wheezes and Specs slaps his arm. "Don't say it in the ugly American way. Softer 'J' and 'ièn' instead of 'ian'. Julien." Still laughing, Race shakes his head. "Oh Julien, how's Romeo doing?"_ _

__"Oh my fucking God, shut the fuck up", Specs groans and Romeo gives him a beaming smile. "We match." "We sure do buddy", Specs answers, getting redder and redder by the minute._ _

__"Buddy, he says", Elmer drawls and pelts a loaf of bread at Specs' head. "Aren't you like, the oldest out of all of us? Not counting Bill and Darcy by the way, they're like thirty or something. Be more mature, Specsy."_ _

__Specs looks at him in confusion. "I'm not the oldest? Katherine, Jack and Mush are all older than me?" Jack lets a piece of bread fall. "I'm older than you?" he asks in bewilderment. "I thought you we're gonna turn eighteen next month man, luckily enough for me I didn't plan that party yet." Specs snorts. "I'm turning seventeen next month, dumbass." Jack turns to him with a shit eating grin. "Don't talk to your elders like that, Julien."_ _

__To keep Specs from violently punching Jack, Tommy Boy starts to talk. "Since the contest is over, I will grant all of you peasants the right to my name. It's Alexander Boyle." While trying to stuff three loaves of bread in Albert's mouth, Race asks: "How the fuck did you earn the nickname Tommy Boy then? Tommy is nowhere near Alexander."_ _

__"Jack", Tommy Boy replies and that on its own is enough of an explanation. But Tommy Boy decides to elaborate a bit more. "Some guys were throwing slurs at my head and this guy comes over screaming: "Leave Thomas alone!" And when they left, he aggressively grabbed me by the shoulders and while staring into my soul, he reassured me that I was a real boy. It was one of the strangest experiences of my life and also how I met Jack. I still don't know why he thought my name was Thomas though." Jack scratches his head. "It was the first name that came up in my head."_ _

__Specs laughs and rolls his eyes. "I think everyone's first meeting with Jack Kelly is a weirdass tale. Anyway, I'm hitting the shower, be back in a sec." He leaves the room, pulling his shirt over his head as he goes through the door._ _

__"Sometimes I forget how fucking hot Specs is, because he's so adorable most of the time. But damn. Just...damn." Romeo exhales and bangs his head on the table. "Please don't thirst over my grandson while I'm in the room please", Specs' grandma dryly remarks. "You should get yourselves dressed too and brush your teeth, wash your face. We don't have that much time to waste."_ _

__When all of them are dressed and washed up, Specs' grandma starts distributing the work. "We've got four people to question. Who takes Les Jacobs?" Katherine grabs Bill and Darcy's hands and raises all them in the air. "We'll do that!"_ _

__"Next up, Medda Larkin." Jack raises his hand, as do Elmer and Romeo. "Okay, Bryan Denton."_ _

__"I'll go, Bryan's chill", Finch volunteers and Henry adds: "I'll tag along." Madame Lefay gives them a curt nod and asks who wants to question the last person. "Spot Conlon."_ _

__A weird vibe enters the room, but Race breaks it by shooting up and yelling: "I'll do it! I've got beef with Conlon." Albert snorts. "No you don't. You just want to fight him. I'll go with Racer."_ _

__"Okay, those are all the people. You lot go interview them and around two o'clock, we'll meet up at the demon's den. All the others will come along with me, we're gonna check that place out. Everybody knows what to do?" All the newsies move their heads in agreement and they go their own ways._ _

__As Sarah Jacobs watches her little brother put a tie around his tie and smoothing out the wrinkles in his white button up, she can't help but think that she misses Les. She knows that he's right in front of her physically, but she can't connect to him anymore, not the way she could before._ _

__All of Les' strange habits had started with the disappearance of his imaginary friend. Sarah hadn't even known that he'd had one, until one day he ran down the stairs, tears streaming down his face. He had been inconsolable, asking again and again about the whereabouts of 'Davey'._ _

__'Davey' was apparently Sarah's twin brother. He was a shy guy with a lot of opinions and a big love for fancy words, who liked to spend time with both of his siblings. He was also close friends with the 'newsies' aka Jack Kelly's group of ragtag boys. But Jack and Les had no personal ties, except for the art cursus they both took._ _

__In the earliest stage of Les being stubborn about the 'fact' that David existed, he had run up to the group of older boys and had asked them if they knew where Davey was. Jack Kelly had laughed and clapped him on the shoulder, telling him that he knew of no David._ _

__After that, her parents had decided to put Les in therapy, because they thought that his obsession with his imaginary friend was going overboard. She remembers that she had tried to calm him down, telling him that they were only trying to help. She would never forget the overwhelming anger in Les' eyes, the way it burned on his young face. "I'm not surprised by their behaviour", he sneered, obviously hinting at their parents. "But I expected better from you Sarah." The way he dropped her nickname 'Saz' at that moment and never used it again, had felt like a slap to the face._ _

__Les' therapist declared him 'cured' barely a month into the treatment, but the sobs she heard coming from his room on some nights told her otherwise. The way he changed his speech and clothing style told her otherwise. The general secretiveness that now hung around him permanently told her otherwise._ _

__Les' speech became incredibly polished and sometimes the words he used bordered on ridiculous. He told their parents that he wanted to be a bit more mature and they ate it right up, laughing proudly at their son._ _

__He also switching in his marvel-themed t-shirts for button ups and jeans for nicer pants. He started wearing ties and she can't help but thinks he looks ridiculous in clothes that don't seem to fit him quite right._ _

__Les also picks up a hobby that she'd never seen coming. He started drawing and intensely so. He didn't seem to have any interest in drawing cartoons or objects in general. No, it's always people and she didn't know why, until she found a sketchbook that he had never showed anyone before._ _

__When she flipped it open, she saw pages filled with drawings of the same boy. He looks like her and as she regards the latest drawings, she can see that he had used her as a reference. Somewhere within her mind, she found it sad that he didn't know what his imaginary friend looked like when he grew a bit older and that he had to use her face to make a guess about it._ _

__One of the drawings had stuck out to her. It had been a piece with a whole lot of people and she knew immediately that this was drawn from a picture. It showed her and David, surrounded by newsies, as they blew out the candles on a birthday cake that showed the number 13. Les had found her staring at that drawing when he came into his room and even though she'd promised she wouldn't tell their parents, it had widened the rift between them._ _

__Les doesn't understand how everybody in his life forgot about David, but as life goes on, Les learns to hide just how much he misses his older brother. He can't share it with anyone and he can't count the times he's prayed for David to return on his hands anymore. At this point he thinks he could find peace with it if he should come to find out that David has passed away. At least then, he would be able to give his brother's disappearance a place in his life, but right now everything is one big question mark and Les can't help but hope that David will return. He kind of despises his own childish hope though. Misplaced hope hurts more than death ever could._ _

__He copies as much of David as he can remember. Continues to write in David's notebook, where his older brother wrote words he thought sounded cool erhm, 'sumptuous'. David's clothing style which Les had always mocked him for, replaced his own silly t-shirts. When he looks in the mirror and sees dark curls and neat clothes, he can somewhat pretend that David is still with him._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello y'all, thanks for all the love I've been receiving in the form of comments/reads/kudos, I truly appreciate this. I really wanted to write the Les-part, that's why I still have to do my homework. Oopsies. Anyway, I'm rivertellsstories on tumblr if anyone wants to know.


	16. Bryan Denton shares his experience as an ugly guardian angel of bratty children part 1.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I've got nothing to say to you", he spits out and Bryan shrugs. "Okay", and continues with his paperwork. After a while, a tiny head peaks from over the edge of the desk. "What are you doing?" 
> 
> "Paperwork."
> 
> "Ew."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eyo, I tell y’all how old Kathy died

There's an excited buzz travelling throughout the massive building and Bryan Denton, who's just returned from another mission ( _seven_ , she didn't make it past _seven_ ), has no idea what it's about and also no desire to know. 

At least not until he hears one of his co-workers whisper the words: 'Joseph Pulitzer' and 'daughter' and notices a steady stream of people moving towards the courtyard. Alarm bells start ringing in his head and his thoughts become an unorganized mess of what-if's. What if they know about Katherine? What if she's already dead?

Catching his breath after sprinting towards the court room, the first thing he notices is tiny Katherine seated on the floor, playing some kind of patty cake with Bill and Darcy, not caring much about the crowd gathered around them. The judge, seated high and mighty while looking down on the kids, adjusts his glasses and squints over the rim of them. He clears his throat but before he can speak, Katherine's high voice interrupts him. "Excuse me sir", she says politely, "Why am I here?"

"Don't worry about it. Your father knows where he went wrong." The statement makes Katherine frown in confusion, but it confirms Bryan's fears. Fuck. Fuck! He spins around on his heel immediately, breaking the 'no-magic rule' in the office and transports himself to Joe's office. "You're late", Pulitzer remarks all hoity-toity, as he usually is, but the man notices Bryan's distress when his eyes flick up from the documents on his desk. "What's wrong with you this time?" 

"Katherine and the other kids, courtroom. You've got to go, now" , he pants and Pulitzer's eyes go wide and he's gone within a second. Bryan catches his breath for a few seconds, willing himself to calm down and sets off after him.

Seeing Joseph Pulitzer being subdued would be a sight that Bryan would enjoy immensely, because the guy was an insufferable prick, but seeing him held back by an army of witches as his daughter and her friends are about to receive the death penalty, is not an enjoyable sight at all. The executioner's hands are glowing, Bill and Darcy have picked up on the animosity aimed at them and Katherine turns to her father with wide eyes. "Dad?" She asks, voice shaking with unshed tears. "What is going on?"

Desperation and fear are weird emotions to see on Pulitzer's face (all emotions are weird on his face) and Bryan and Pulitzer's gazes cross. Bryan hates him. Loathes every fucking thing about the man, hates how much he's made him suffer by assigning him children that would not live long lives. But those children have thought Bryan more than once how much it hurts to give your child up and he's not going to let it happen to Pulitzer, no matter how much he can't stand the man.

He shoves himself into the crowd of witches that's guarding Pulitzer and the distraction gives the other man enough time to break free from their clutches. Within the blink of an eye, Pulitzer has his daughter and his friends in his arms, but the emergency system kicks in and every trace of magic, except for the executioner's glowing hands, disappears from the room. Over the discontent murmuring from the crowd, he hears Pulitzer telling the children to close their eyes and count to ten, telling them everything will be alright.

'Alright' is a relative concept. At least their deaths were quick. 

'Someone's got to tell Hannah', Bryan numbly thinks as the crowd disperses, having had their daily dose of drama. 'Someone's got to tell her that there's nothing left of her favourite trio of children and her boss.' When he looks at the emotionless crowd of people, he comes to the realization that it's up to him. No one else in this damned place has the basic compassion to do it.

The journey is quick and when he appears in front of her, Hannah gives him a friendly wave and a snarky smile, as per usual. "Have you come to interrupt my job again?" Lost for words, he shakes his head and sits down beside her on the tree branch, looking at the tiny boy playing below them. "They found out that Katherine's not a full blood. She, Bill, Darcy and Pulitzer are dead."

He sees his words sinking in and then the skies become grey and the winds pick up. As branches creak and trees shake, Bryan begins to worry for the child's well-being. Then, everything stops and Hannah gives an ice-cold and way too calm look. "Where were you at that moment?" He doesn't answer, because how do you tell someone that you couldn't prevent one of their loved ones' death? Quickly she stands up and delivers a swift slap to his cheek. "As per usual, Bryan Denton is a passive sack of shit", she hisses. "I hate you. I hope you live a long, miserable and lonely life." 

That same night, when he's staring into his coffee cup and wondering how they could've found out, someone knocks on the door. When he opens it, he isn't surprised to find Hannah standing there, looking lost and sad. Her anger has blown over and he moves to let her in.

She sets herself down on the couch, staring numbly at his wall as he makes her a cup of tea. When he joins her on the couch, she whispers a quiet: "Sorry I blew up. It was bound to happen sooner or later." It's a true statement, but it doesn't make it hurt any less. 

More silence follows, until Hannah's anger gets sparked up again and she smashes her mug down unto the table. "It's unfair", she whispers and then she repeats it, louder. "It's un-fucking-fair! Who cares if you're not one or the other? Who cares where your magical abilities lay? Who cares what kind of blood flows throughout your veins? This world fucking sucks, there's no righteousness in the death of innocent children!" 

"It's the system", he replies dully and she glares at him. "The system's wrong." He downs the rest of his coffee in one go. "You don't need to tell me that, it's the people who've gotta change their minds. No one's gonna listen to two unimportant no-name Protectors. Also, they're gonna choose a new boss to replace Pulitzer and they are going to choose the most pro pureblood fucker around to prevent something like this from happening again. There's no chance of winning in this fucked up society."

"There is", Hannah murmurs. "The youth is waking up to the unfairness of their world. Have you heard of the Lefay girl?" 

"She is twelve and currently in jail, Hannah." Hannah hums, but there is determination in her eyes. "She is twelve and is braver than any grown up that sits around, waiting for change to automatically happen. Furthermore, she's a witch fighting for familiar rights. Do you know how revolutionary that is? She's pissing people off left and right."

Then her shoulders drop and the determined expression morphs into one of sadness. He sees her struggle to keep her tears away and opens up his arms. "It's okay to cry."

"I know. You think we'd be used to death by now", she chokes out and when they hug, he breaks down as well. Spunky little Katherine, suave and cheeky Bill and polite and smart Darcy wouldn't be hanging around in his kitchen anymore on the days that neither Pulitzer nor Hannah could watch them. There was nothing left of them.

Bryan wakes up because of someone knocking on the door. Looking like hell, he opens the door and a folder gets shoved into his hands. "Your next mission", the messenger announces and leaves swiftly. He stares at the folder until Hannah wakes up. "The fuck's that Bryan?" she mumbles sleepily.

"A new mission."

"Oh." 

Hannah shifts herself upright. "How old is this one gonna get?" He shakes his head and trusts the folder in her direction. "You look. I can't do it anymore." She takes it and sighs. "You should quit this job, it's no good for your sanity." She quickly flips through the papers, reads the date and her lips become a tight line. "Five", she announces and he runs his hand down his face. "You're gonna take it, aren't you?"

"Who else is insane enough?" he asks bitterly and moves through his apartment in search of items he should take along. "I'm quitting all of this", Hannah announces. "I'm through with it. Please take care of yourself." He nods vaguely in her direction as he wraps a scarf around his neck. "You too." Right before he leaves his house, he turns around to Hannah. "Our jail has a serious understaffing problem. Every day between eight and nine you can go in and out via the west wing without a problem. It would be a shame if someone were to take advantage of that." Hannah smiles shrewdly. "A shame indeed."

Years pass after that and things change. Hannah breaks the Lefay girl out of prison and they start a revolution and win. Hannah takes up Pulitzer's place and becomes Bryan's boss. She's colder now, war having made her sturdier than she's ever been and it's weird to think of her as the girl that once chased him with a crab in her hands when they were around five hundred years old. 

Bryan feels the years weighing down on him too. He's never had a big part in the war, but being the messenger makes you see more than you want to and he doesn't leave any bodies he runs into unburied. It's basic decency. When he picks up his job as a Protector, he keeps getting assigned children that never make it far into their adulthood. His first kid, Leah, keeps holding the record at staying alive the longest, living up to the age of twenty-three.

The door of his office creaks open and Hannah steps in, a folder in her arms. "Here's another case", she announces and puts it on his desk. He looks at it for a minute and then tears his gaze off it. "No. Fuck that shit. I'm past my limits." She raises her eyebrow patiently, but he shakes his head and flips her off. She shrugs and leaves again, but leaves the documents on his desk. He takes it with him and leaves this side of the veil. Fuck it.

He doesn't really know where he's going, but following his feet can't hurt that much. It's cold in this place and when he spots a kid without a jacket or even a sweater, he about gets a heart attack. "Hey kid!" he calls out and walks up to him. "What are you doing here all alone?" The boy looks up at him with wide eyes, shivering violently. "R-rebellion", he says with chattering teeth and Bryan takes his jacket off and drapes it over the kid's shoulders. "Rebellion is fine when you can take care of yourself." He takes his phone out of his pocket and gives it to the child. "Here, call your parents."

The kid shrugs the sleeve of Bryan's jacket upwards until he can take the phone from him. He presses some buttons and then: "Hello 911? I think I'm getting kidnapped." Bryan sighs. He's gonna get jailed in a world he doesn't really know, cool. "You're not, but if it makes you feel safer I'll wait here with you until the police arrives."

"Are you sure that you're not going to kidnap me?" 

"No I'm not, but the police can bring you home and I can not."

"So you're just a sad adult without a car huh?"

Bryan has never felt quite as judged before. "Shut up and finish your call." The boy does exactly that and the both of them sit down on a bench, waiting for the cops to show up. "So, what was the inspiration behind your rebellion, young man?" The boy shrugs and the helpless motion combined with the size of Bryan's jacket, makes him look even smaller. "No one believes me", he states and he sounds resigned. "About what?" Bryan inquires and the boy looks him straight in the eyes. "I'm not sick. I'm cursed."

There's such an absolute sureness in his voice that it commands Bryan's attention, forces him to listen to the child. He looks at the kid, really looks at him and notices the magic all around him. There's a cheerful and youthful purple surrounding him, definitely his own magic. Then he notices something else. A vicious red aura, choking the purple and wherever they touch, the purple is bleak and fades out. "Where did you get that kid? That's one heinous looking curse."

The kid's eyes widen and his bottom lip quivers. "Shit, did I say something wrong?" he asks, alarmed. "You can see it", the kid sobs. "I'm not going crazy." He curls up in the jacket and Bryan gets out a packet of tissues. "You're not kiddo, you'll meet more people like you in your life, I'm sure of it." After the kid has dried his tears, the police arrives. Bryan lets the kid explain what has happened and the police promises to take the kid home. Right before he gets into the car, he whirls around and runs up to Bryan. "Your jacket sir!" 

"Keep it. It's a magical object that'll keep you safe and warm."

"Don't all jackets do that?"

"Shhh, it's magic." The kid giggles and waves him goodbye. Bryan spends a good time explaining to police officers that he really did not want to kidnap a kid.

He gets himself a job as an English teacher and student councillor at a school that has kids from elementary school to high school. When he meets the principal, he has to blink twice. Of course Joseph fucking Pulitzer is his boss again and Bryan discovers that he's still an utter dick. Finally, he can curse at the man again without feeling too guilty. He also sends Hannah a snap of the man mid-sneeze with the caption: 'The dick's got another chance. From what I've heard, the kids did too.' Her response is a brief: 'Good.'

It's at this job that he meets an unforgettable group of tightknit friends. They are spread over different grades and different classes, but they all group together during lunch and make a huge ruckus every day again. He hears rumours from other teachers about all the problem children this group is made of and the first one he actually gets in contact with, is the nine year old trouble child Jack Kelly.

Another teacher literally drags the trashing kid into his office and dumps him roughly unto the nearest chair. "There's no fucking hope for this child. His name is Jack Kelly and he's dumb as a rock and never pays attention. To top it all off, he picks fights with my good students. Fix him or get him kicked out of this school, I don't care. To be fair, I'd prefer the second option." He storms out after that, leaving Bryan with a fuming Jack. "Hijo de puta!" the child screams at the now closed door, fists clenched.

"I've got nothing to say to you", he spits out and Bryan shrugs. "Okay", and continues with his paperwork. After a while, a tiny head peaks from over the edge of the desk. "What are you doing?" 

"Paperwork."

"Ew."

"You're absolutely right kid, but it's a part of adulting." Jack pouts and bumps his head softly on the desk. "I don't like reading. Letters make no sense, like they all look alike and they switch places." That gets Bryan's interest and he asks Jack if he has dyslexia. "I don't know what that is, but it doesn't sound tasty." Bryan bit his lip to force his laughter down and explained what dyslexia was to the kid. "Oh", Jack breathes. "That sounds like me. So I'm not stupid?"

He tells Jack that he doesn't think that he's stupid and when the kid's face brightens, he wonders how many people have told him that he is. He gets in contact with his mother and they arrange for him to get tested. After Jack's been diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD, the kid still has regular sessions with him where Bryan helps him with homework and organizing and colour coding his stuff. 

Later that year, he walks into his office and nearly gets a heart attack when the voice of a child calls out to him. "Hi." Bryan looks around and then he notices a kid with an eyepatch in his own chair. "Hi", he answers, suspiciously. "The P.E.-teacher keeps aiming at my left side. On purpose. Fix it." Bryan nods slowly and the kid exits his office without another word. "Okay then. That happened", he says to himself and sets off to find the P.E.-teacher.

He keeps finding kids in his office searching or forcefully demanding his help. There's Charlie who has problems accessing the elevators because other kids play around on them, so he puts a quick stop to that. There's Sean and Specs (he doesn't know the kid's actual name and can't find it anywhere), who've both got terrible anger issues. 

Spot aims it at everyone, while Specs is the most gentle person around other children. He only blows up at teachers and with a terrifying force at that. Bryan's spotted magic in the kid the first time he laid eyes in him and makes sure that all damage gets minimised and forgotten if needed. He also thinks the kid looks familiar, but can't quite place his finger on it.

Slowly but surely, he becomes one of the teachers that those kids actually trusts. He gets high fives from Race when they pass each other in the hallways (that kid gives a mean slap, but Bryan will never give him the satisfaction of wincing. Never.) He gets tips of Jack's nonexistent hat, tiny waves from Buttons and a solemn nod from Kid Blink.

It's when he's making sandwiches for Elmer (my mom sometimes forgets about my lunch, it's fine) and Albert (forgot my lunch. Yes, for the fourth time this week! It doesn't mean anything, keep your nose out of it) in his kitchen that he realises that he's never quitted his job like he wanted to. He's still taking care of children. With a sigh he looks down on the sandwiches and groans. Fuck, Elmer's got a peanut allergy, he's gotta restart again.

No unknown faces get into his office until very late into the school year. He's gotten a heads up from a teacher and it went something like this: "He doesn't talk and when he does, he tells lies. Please do something about it."

He hears the reluctant scuffling of feet before he lays eyes on the kid he met about a year ago in the park. "Well hello again", he remarks and the kid's face brightens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I split this chapter in two because it’s long enough and I didn’t want to skip this week. Thanks for reading/kudos/commenting, whatever you feel like doing :) I’m Rivertellsstories on Tumblr


	17. Bryan Denton shares his experience as an ugly guardian angel of bratty children part 2. The children become brattier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You're my ugly guardian angel!" the kid exclaims and Bryan forces the urge to frown down. He goes for a relatively polite sounding "Excuse me?" instead. Insistently, the kid nods and pulls on the collar of the jacket he's wearing and that motion makes Bryan re-examine the way too big coat the kid's wearing. "This thing totally saved my life a few times! I got hit by a car and nothing happened. I told my sister about it and my dad, but they didn't believe me."
> 
> Ah. That explains a lot. "Kiddo, we're gonna have some talking to do. Sit down if you want and tell me your name." The kid nods and plops down on the couch. "I'm David Jacobs, it's nice to formally meet you sir."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guys, we're still seeing things from Denton's pov. I thought I'd finish his whole thingy today, but we didn't get there. So there's gonna be more of him

"You're my ugly guardian angel!" the kid exclaims and Bryan forces the urge to frown down. He goes for a relatively polite sounding "Excuse me?" instead. Insistently, the kid nods and pulls on the collar of the jacket he's wearing and that motion makes Bryan re-examine the way too big coat the kid's wearing. "This thing totally saved my life a few times! I got hit by a car and nothing happened. I told my sister about it and my dad, but they didn't believe me."

Ah. That explains a lot. "Kiddo, we're gonna have some talking to do. Sit down if you want and tell me your name." The kid nods and plops down on the couch. "I'm David Jacobs, it's nice to formally meet you sir."

Their conversation starts with magic and that David probably shouldn't talk about it with his classmates and that he should probably wait with telling his family until he's sure that he can show them proof. His magic is kind of wonky and all over the place, which is quite normal for kids his age. David agrees to this, nodding in understanding. After that the conversation shifts towards classes and friends, just the usual stuff.

When David tells him that he's in class 5B, Bryan raises an eyebrow in surprise. "Are you friends with a certain mister Jack Kelly?" Scrunching his nose in confusion, David shakes his head. "I don't know him." Then his face clears up and he snaps his fingers. "Oh, I remember! He's been sick for the last week and I only have been going to school for a week."

"This school? Or have you never gone to a public school before?" Bryan asks and David hums. "Never been to any school before, but my sister has! Her name is Sarah." Bryan thinks he knows the girl. She's in another class, but she is in Jack's group of friends nonetheless. He wonders why David has never been to school before, but decides to let it slide. If David wants to talk about it, he can.

As they part ways, he gives David a last piece of advice. "If you're fairly sure that someone else has magic in them, feel free to talk to them about it, just be careful about who you talk to. Anyway, I hope you have fun being at school."

A few days after Jack returns, Bryan inquires about David and Jack scowls. "He is mean, I don't like him. He called me stupid." Bryan frowns at that. He'd say that that doesn't sound very David-like, but how well does he know the kid really? "Really?" he asks, leaving enough room for Jack to add whatever he wants to.

The boy nods and scoffs. "He's a dick. No one likes him." There's some uncomfortable shifting and whispering around the table before a quiet voice speaks up. "I like him. He sings nicely." Jack shoots his younger brother an indignant look. "He is stupid", he sputters and lays his head down on the table. "And mean too." After that, he doesn't say anything anymore so Bryan sets off to find David.

He finds the boy in the music room, seated behind the piano. At first he didn't see him, because of his small stature. But right before he exited the room, he heard a hesitant melody coming from the piano and he walked around it, meeting David Jacobs.

"Shouldn't you spend your breaks with your friends?" he asks and David shrugs, not reacting otherwise. "I heard you had a fight with a kid in your class." David gives him a blank stare and Bryan clarifies. "Jack Kelly?" At the mention of the name, David rolls his eyes. "We didn't fight per se. He's just stupid and I told him so. He thinks the moon is bigger in Santa Fe, which is impossible. He's dumb, but I don't really care about him", David states flatly.

"But he took it very personally and now he's ready to fistfight me behind a seven eleven. Jokes on him, the only place I'll ever fistfight someone is on my grandmother's grave, because I know she'll come back to beat both of our asses. It's the only sorta win-situation I can achieve when it comes to fist fighting."

"Ah", Bryan states eloquently, not knowing how to react to that. "Unfortunately", David sighs, "My sister seems to be quite taken by this fool and has doomed me to a life of utter loneliness and desolation. So if you'd excuse me", David waves at the door, "You may now leave, so I can recommence my wallowing in self-pity. Thanks."

Bryan snorts. "You're ridiculous. What about your other classmates?" For a moment David tenses. It's a tiny motion that betrays him, but as quick as Bryan caught it, it's gone again. "They are also stupid. I do not want to be acquainted with such individuals. I have the piano and on occasion the library, so I am fine."

"Kiddo, please search some friends. Life's long and lonely without companionship." A little laugh escapes David and it sounds more morbid than kids usually do. "Life's not long if your name is David Jacobs. There's no need for companionship if all it's going to do is hurt people." There's a moment where they both stare at each other and Bryan can feel the kid's emotions in the air, flickering like static, stormy and unbelievably dark.

Then, it all disappears again and David smiles. There's no humour in his eyes and he removes himself from the piano. "Don't worry about me sir, I am alright. Occasionally I am joined by a kid that likes to sit in the corner while I play the piano. I talk to Crutchie sometimes and Specs too. I'm fine." Without any other words, David quickly leaves the room.

From then on, Bryan starts noticing David during breaks and the kid is indeed completely fucking lonely. He doesn't seek out anyone and spends his time in little desolate spaces that people only sporadically stumble upon. He builds himself a tiny kingdom of little nooks and crannies, where he converses with the people who seek him out. There's Crutchie, always looking for new friends, Specs who knows the whole school like the back of his hand and quiet Romeo, who instinctively seems to know what people need. Bryan wonders how he can change the dynamic a little bit, make David more comfortable at school. Turns out, that the dynamic does get flipped and David comes out of his stoicism.

David storms into his office one day, cheeks flushed and out of breath. "Mister Denton, sir!" he cries out and sits on the floor. Wildly gesturing with his hands, he rattles off a story and Bryan tries to follow him. "Today I felt something I never thought I was capable of feeling", the boy exclaims with shining eyes. "It's been simmering and boiling under my skin for a while now, but I thought, surely not? I mean, I'm but a kid, what do I know? Today I got the confirmation. There is no way that it isn't what I'm thinking it is."

Bryan does not know how to react to that. Deciding to just play along (this is nothing but a temporary crush that young children get, he reminds himself), he sets himself down on the floor next to David. "Oh?" David nods fervently. "Mister Denton, sir, I was so surprised! People usually don't get to me that much, but he is just so..."

"So?"

"Absolutely annoying. I hate him. Loathe him. I've never felt quite as much abhorrence for one single person before in my life and it's making my head spin." David looks fascinated at his recent discovery, but Bryan is mostly confused. "How come you hate this person that much? What did he do?"

"He exists."

Dear Lord, Bryan is not prepared for antics this childish. David seems to read it on his face and the boy shrugs. "He's like an alarm clock. Probably good for something, but I've got no need for it since I've got a good internal clock. But instead of taking the hint, he keeps making loud noises. I want to throw him out of the window. Noisy stupid..." David's voice descents to a nearly impossible to hear volume and Bryan has to try really hard to hear him. "Bitch", David whispers nearly inaudibly.

The door slams open and a panting Jack Kelly shows up in the doorway. "Bryan, you will never believe what David-" He lays eyes on David and both of them suddenly look like someone forced a bowl of living slugs down their throat.

"Kelly."

"Jacobs."

"Denton." Bryan shrugs as the boys give him confused looks. "I thought we were introducing ourselves." Never one for lying or pretending, David rolls his eyes. "You're so stupid." Jack gasps in offence and looks at David in utter disgust. "Bryan look! He's mean. He called me stupid again!"

"It's because you are stupid."

"Am not!"

"Are too."

"AM NOT!"

"BOYS!" Startled, they both shut up. "David, why did you call Jack stupid this time?" Indifferently, David shrugs. "Because he is, he can't even read properly." Bryan sighs. "David, do you know the definition of the word 'dyslexia'?" Realisation dawns on David's face and he turns to Jack with a guilty expression on his face. "I'm sorry for calling you stupid", he says sincerely and Jack's defensive stance loosens a bit up. "From now on, I'll just call you ugly", David announces just as sincerely and swiftly removes himself from the room.

There's a beat of silence and then Jack explodes. "Do you see what I have to deal with on a daily basis? He sucks! I hate him! I am not ugly! He is ugly!" Jack rages and Bryan lets him spew insults until he calms down. "You alright there kid?" Jack nods and buries his hands in his pockets. "He is stupid, not me."

"Kinda strange that you get along so well with Sarah but not with her brother", Bryan states and Jack looks at him with wide eyes. "Her what now?"

"You didn't know? I even think they're twins." Jack considers it for a moment. "They look kinda alike but Sarah's nice and David's not, so they can't be related, right? Anyway, I've gotta go to class now. Bye Bryan!" And with that, Jack Kelly runs off.

Bryan decides to let the kids find their own way for now. If shit hits the fan for real, he'll be around to help.

Apparently, it isn't needed because after a few minor incidents (Jack made me trip! David made my crayons disappear! Etc.), he stumbles upon David Jacobs sitting in his chair one day, drinking tea and sighing dramatically. "Hello mister Denton, it seems like the feud between Jack Kelly and I shall have to come to a stop."

"Oh no", Bryan deadpans. "What a complete and utter pity. I'll surely miss teachers dragging you two into my office because you've been fighting again. A shame, really." Unimpressed David raises his eyebrow. "For an adult, you whine a lot, sir."

"Get out", he says flatly and David salutes, grinning.

Jack enters his office later that day, a cowboy hat perched on his hat. "David gave me this cool hat as a peace offering. I think we're on the road to friendship now, but I still think he's a bit of a dick. We'll see what comes of it."

A few days later Jack is back. He still has his hat, but he has this look on his face that Bryan by now has learned to associate with David doing something stupid. "I wanna be his friend", Jack announces. "Because the hat is cool and because I want Sarah and him to know each other, but he's always gone before I can talk to him."

"What do you mean you want Sarah and David to know each other? They live in the same house." Jack cocks his head. "Oh, apparently David barely got to leave his room because he was really sick and his mom didn't want for anyone else to catch it. But recently his dad lost his job and David's mom had to go to work. She thought it would be better if David went to school, because his dad has to recover from injuries and can't really take care of David. So, Sarah doesn't really know him, because he's been isolated for so long."

This is new information to him and he decides to give David's student file a look later on. "Maybe he's a little bit scared of your group." Jack rolls his eyes. "David isn't scared of anything, he yelled at a teacher over books. He has Opinions™ and he scares me."

"That may be true, but you have to keep in mind that you come with a package of twenty rowdy people." Jack bites his lip and mulls it over for a second. "Mmmkay then, if you think so. I'm gonna search for him now. Bye."

Right after Jack leaves the room, the closet door creaks open and David's head peaks out. "Is he gone?" he whispers. "Why where you in there?" Bryan asks as David crawls out of the closet. "It's cosy", David replies and he shoots Bryan a cheeky smile.

When Bryan opens the closet, he finds something resembling a bird's nest, but only made out of pillows instead of grass. "You are absolutely unbelievable", he sighs.

"Do you think it's okay for me to make friends?" David asks suddenly and gives Bryan an unsure look. "Of course it is, why would you think it isn't?" David shrugs, shoulders hunched. "My mom says it would be unfair of me. I'm probably not going to become much older than fourteen, so it would be mean of me to go around making friends. People don't deserve to be hurt like that."

The words don't sound like a conclusion that David came to himself and the way he's blinking away tears kind of confirms that suspicion. "Hey kiddo", he says softly. "You aren't being unkind or unfair, life is. You are allowed to be happy, happiness isn't a selfish thing." David sort of breaks down after that and Bryan engulfs the kid in a hug. "You're gonna be okay", he sushes in a soothing manner. "You're gonna be fine."

From then on David starts seeking people out. Instead of just being in the same room, Romeo and David talk about songs and have fun with the instruments in the music room. Specs and David drink tea on the roof together and Bryan pretends he doesn't know who's making the teabags disappear. David, Sarah and Crutchie often hang out in the library together and when David sits at the lunch table with the large group of friends, he sort of hides behind Jack. On days when everything's too loud, Bryan can find David in his closet, reading a book.

Sometimes, David talks to him about little magic things that he makes happen or the things he sees. "You see magical stuff?" David nods. "Chicken Little helps me with it." Snorting, Bryan repeats the name. "Chicken Little?"

A tiny chirp can be heard and Bryan looks at David with wide eyes. "Kid, please tell me you did not bring a bird to school." A guilty expression forms on David's face and the kid pats around his ginormous jacket. He pulls a tiny, ugly bird out of his pocket and whispers: "Chicken Little."

"Where did you find that abomination of a creature?" Denton asks incredulously and David scowls. "Chicken Little is no abomination, sir. I found and raised him!"

'That's kind of cute', Bryan thinks and then David continues. "I plan to eat him. Chicken is kosher."

"David that is a raven." Bryan says as the bird pecks David's hand. "Oh", David sighs. "Raven's aren't kosher. Seems like he will not be eaten." The bird makes a noise of agreement. "I shall also rename him. From now on, his name is Edgar. Edgar Chicken Little." The bird gives David what could be a judgemental stare, but seems to understand that the situation isn't gonna improve.

Sometimes David talks about his home situation and whenever he talks about his mother, Bryan can't help but think that there's something weird in their relationship. David describes her as a very caring and loving person, but sometimes he seems to be scared of her. He never elaborates on those parts, he shuts immediately up when Bryan asks about it, shaking his head vehemently.

He asks some teachers about the woman and they tell him that Esther Jacobs is a wonderful woman, that she's always polite when they talk to her during parent teacher meetings. A very interesting he heard from a teacher, is that David used to have a period where he lied about his mom hurting him to his father and his sister. But there was never any evidence, so obviously it never happened, right?

One day, David slips into his office, quiet and shoulders hunched. "Sir?" he asks hesitantly and Bryan hums in response. "You believe me when I tell you stuff, right?" Sensing that this conversation is important, Bryan turns around and sits down in front of David. "Absolutely kid, tell me what's up."

Sniffling, David tells him that he's so, so confused. "My mom hurts me when no one is around. Well, I don't think it's actually my mom but they are too hard to tell apart."

"Who are hard to tell apart?"

"My mom and the other lady. The other lady is a mom too and just like mine, she loves her child very much. But I'm not that child and she doesn't like me. She hates me, but she needs me. At first, I could tell them apart easily, but now my mom's love for me and her love for her child intertwine so much and she edges my mom's worry on, so I can't go anywhere and I'm never alone. She's going to kill me and she's going to use my mom's body to do it. She knows no one believes me enough to stop it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading/commenting/kudo-ing, whatever you feel like! I'm Rivertellsstories on tumblr if you want to know :)


	18. CoParentship is a thing and marrying for taxes is too. Please don't leave your ace buddy Hannah, he is poor.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They have conversation after that where Bryan discovers the kid is safe as long as there are other people around, which is worrying considering that the kid has spent his life up till now at home, being taken care of by his mom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bryan and Hannah are ace roommates heck yeah

They have conversation after that where Bryan discovers the kid is safe as long as there are other people around, which is worrying considering that the kid has spent his life up till now at home, being taken care of by his mom.

He spends the rest of the break teaching the kid little defence spells and weaves an extra layer of them into the old jacket that David still held on to. Before the bell rings, he tells David the following: "Should you need me, just call my name. I'll hear it." David nods and totters away.

Bryan lets it sink in for a moment, before deciding to seek out the mother. The chance that she's unaware of what's happening is big, but the least Bryan can do is make her aware of the more magical side of reality. The easiest, most non-creepy way to do it, is to give the family a little visit after school.

He almost forgets to do that, because of one very perseverant colleague trying to organise a baby shower and of course there's winks and reassurances that she'll find someone to go with him. As the lovely elderly lady chatters on about potential dates, Bryan zones out. "I'm a couple of thousand years older than you", he thinks and before he himself registers it, he says: "I think my wife wouldn't like that very much."

'Fuck', he thinks as the elderly lady smiles warmly at him. "Oh I look forward to meeting her! A nice young man like you (Bryan cringes inwardly), surely has a spouse that's just as nice." He smiles widely and gives her a thumbs up. "Yeahh, sure!" and walks away as quickly and politely as he can. 

As soon as he reaches his office, he frantically searches for his phone and calls a slightly more responsible adult. When he waits for her to pick up, he remembers a certain incident somewhere right after their college years. "Hello, my dearest darlingest wife", he says in a singsong voice and Hannah promptly hangs up. Of course he calls back. "Hannah please help me I did something stupid."

"Of course you did. Are we really still married?"

"My tax papers say so. Please don't divorce me, I'll end up poor."

For a moment Hannah is silent and then she sighs audibly. "Open your window, I'll be there in a sec." True to her word, Hannah appears in the sky, hovering gracefully with her umbrella in her hand. Little children gape as the adults completely look over her. With grace, she enters his office and smacks him over the head with her umbrella. "Bryan, what the actual fuck. We married for tax benefits and that's it."

"I accidentally told my co-worker that I had a wife because I did not want to take any of my other co-workers to this babyshower." Folding her arms over each other, she sighs. "I'm staying over at yours and you're gonna be doing most of the chores." 

"Fair."

That evening, after he's given Hannah a house tour, he tells her that he'll be gone for a while. "What are you going to do?" she asks as she pulls his stuff out of his own closets and replaces them with her own. "Gonna have the magic talk with a kid's parents." Hannah snorts. "Good luck with that buddy."

From the moment that Bryan meets Esther Jacobs, he can tell that she is not impressed at all. She and her son share that same judgemental, one eyebrow raised kind of look and the resemblance is uncanny. Bryan decides to be as direct as possible, to avoid misunderstandings. "Hello, I'm a teacher at your son's school, but that's not what I'm here for. I'm here to talk to you about your son's magical capabilities." Esther gives him another flat eyed and closes the door.

Sighing, Bryan nudges the closed door back open, but stays outside to be polite. "Ma'am, there's no way you don't know that your kid can do things others can't. He's ten, unexplainable things must've had happened by now." He sees her hesitate, so he snaps his fingers, making the lights in the house change colour. It's just a little trick, but she seems convinced. "Come in", she sighs and beckons him inside.

Sarah Jacobs peaks her head around the corner, gives him a polite nod and retreats again, carrying a toddler in her arms. Esther motions towards the couch and Bryan awkwardly sits down, introducing himself to Mayer Jacobs. The man has a stern face, but friendly smile and Bryan has a tiny chat with him before Esther joins them and asks for answers.

He lays down the basics about magic, that David mostly has to make sense of his abilities on his own and that they can't stop it. Even if they try to pretend nothing's up with their kid, his abilities will progress. The parents seem a bit reluctant to accept this fact, but the glances they trade reveal that they aren't really surprised either.

"Is he speaking the truth then?" Esther asks hesitantly, wringing her hands together. "Is my son cursed?" Bryan bites his lip and gives her a nod. "Yes, but I can't figure out exactly what is going on with him. What made you think that he was sick?"

"He's had a lot of seizures, starting from the age of four. They always happen randomly and it's the scariest thing. He just drops to the floor and doesn't move for a good twenty minutes or when he does move, it's like it's not David at all. We've been to as many doctors as we can afford, but there's nothing but speculation. We've had people tell us it's epilepsy among other things but none of the meds work and the triggers don't line up either."

"What do you mean with 'not like David'?" Bryan asks and Esther and Mayer give each other a tentative glance. "He speaks with the voices of other people and the things he says are always along the lines of 'Soon, we're gonna be free soon' or 'it won't be long anymore' and then he laughs with the voice of others and it sounds so wrong." 

"Have you ever experienced something like that for yourself?"

Esther gives him a weird look and Bryan presses on. "Your son tells me that you become another person when you two are alone. This other woman is a threat to him and he's scared." 

It's then that the mood changes and Esther points at the door. "Get out of my house. I appreciate you concern for my child's health, but I will not let you insult me in my own house. Leave, you are not welcome anymore."

Before he leaves, Bryan gives her a card with all his personal information on it. "It might come in handy one day. I'm sorry if I offended you, but my goal is preventing your child from getting killed, not disrespecting you." 

A few days go by without Bryan hearing anything worrying from David. Then, one night he wakes up around two in the morning and a call for help clears up the sleepy fog riddling his brain. Within seconds he appears in the Jacobs house and separates Esther and David. As a threatening aura flees the room, Bryan spots protection charms written all over the door, broken and mangled while sound reducing spells glisten menacingly. 

David is sitting in a corner of the room, buried in the spell-ridden jacket. There are tears in the jacket, but it seems to have done its job protecting David. "Kid", he calls out softly. "It's me Bryan, you're okay. You can come out of there whenever you want, I'm going to check if your mom is alright." The bundle of jacket and boy doesn't move for a while but then David uncurls himself a little bit and nods.

As Bryan walks over to Esther, the woman groans and turns on to her back. Her eyes become clear again and she stares at the ceiling of her son's bedroom in confusion. "David, why am I here?" She turns towards him and Bryan awkwardly waves. "We talked about this earlier today, but you did not seem to believe me", he states and Esther's eyes widen. 

She reaches out for her son, but David backs away before she can lay a finger on him. "No!" he yells with a cracking voice. "Don't touch me!" Esther looks wounded and she stands up shakily. "I'm going to get my husband", she announces shakily and leaves the room. "Are you unharmed, kid?" David flaps the long sleeves of the jacket around. "I guess so, but I don't like this at all. The charms held up for a few hours and then she broke through. It was scary."

When Esther and Mayer come back into the room, Bryan suggest that he calls Hannah and that the two of them make the room evil-proof. Two experienced protectors should be able to hold of one vindictive being. Or at least, for a while, because fate always finds a way of ruining things. 

As Hannah and him scrawl protective signs all over the walls, David watches them with interest and points at the symbols he recognises, telling his parents about them. "Where did you get that info, kiddo?" Hannah asks and David points at the walls. "From the library inside our walls." Neither Mayer nor Esther seem to know what their son is talking about, but David waves everyone's worries off. "It's a safe place, most of the time." A little while later, they are ready and bid the Jacobs farewell. "Take care y'all and don't hesitate to contact either of us if shit hits the fan."

Shit does indeed hit the fucking fan before any of them truly notice it. It's once again too fucking early in the morning, when Bryan wakes up to a sense of alarm. Barely a minute later, the doorbell rings insistently, frantically. When he opens the door, he spots a distraught Esther holding David by the hand. Before he can say anything, Esther grabs her son by the shoulders and trusts him in Bryan's direction. "Please let him stay here for the night, he's not safe in our house." 

The woman bursts out into tears and Bryan guides the two of them inside, where Hannah is waiting with warm beverages. She takes the other woman gently by the arm, talking in a soft, low voice, leaving David in Bryan's care. The kid keeps standing where his mother left him, unmoving. "David?" Bryan calls out and gets no reaction in return. "Do you want to stay here? Or do you wanna sit down?" 

Once again he gets no reaction, so he sits down beside the kid and waits until he starts moving again. Esther and Hannah are still within earshot, but Bryan keeps talking to the kid anyway. About a half hour later, David stirs and he buries his face in his hands and makes a series of distressed noises. There are no words discernible and David searches his pockets and pulls out a book. 

The thing is old and leather bound and David lets his fingers trail over the smooth cover and rubs his cheek against it. About half an hour later, David exhales rather loudly. Eyes trained on his book, he asks: "What's gonna happen now?"

"I can not keep David safe in my house", Esther admits and her shoulders sag. "Your barrier held up for a while, but whomever wants to get to David, knows their spellwork well. They unravelled it before anyone noticed and this night-" She chokes on her words and David pulls his collar down, revealing red fingerprints around his throat. 

"She wanted me dead", the boy whispers, face void of any emotion. "But she needs me, so she wants to hurt me as much as she can. She wants her child back so badly, but she has failed so many times. But as you said, she's good with spellwork. She'll get there. I will die."

As much as they try to, they can't make David clarify his ominous statement and Esther prepares to leave. She gives David a kiss on his hair and after she leaves, the boy sits down on the floor, playing with the book once more. "You should go to bed kid", Hannah suggests softly and David shakes his head violently. "I want my mom." His voice is filled with unshed tears and Hannah reaches out towards him, but David shakes his head again. 

"We could call her?" Bryan offers and David nods. "Please."

As Hannah moves her stuff to Bryan's room to make place for David, the boy lays on the bed, listening to his mother's voice until he falls asleep. Bryan leaves the phone next to the boy, in case he wants to call his family again.

An hour later, Bryan gets shaken awake. The first thing David says when he notices that Bryan's awake is: "Breakfast."

With tired eyes, Bryan looks at his alarm clock. "It's half past three, a little early for breakfast, don't you think?" David gives him a soft slap on the arm and shakes his head. "No, I have to eat it at home."

Tiredly, Bryan nods. "I have to be at school earlier anyway, I'll drop you off at your house. Good?" David nods again and goes back to sleep again.

It becomes a weird kind of normalcy. David solely spends the night at Bryan and Hannah's and the rest of the day with his family.  They are in no way replacements for his parents, just temporary guardians for when he's not safe in his own house. 

After David comes to terms with eating somewhere that isn't his own home, Bryan invites the Jacobs over for dinner and slowly their households sort of melt together. They share holidays like Hanukkah and Daenya Day (Sarah gets wildly enthusiastic about the prospect of celebrating the life of a magical, lesbian pirate) and Les grows up with uncle Bryan and auntie Hannah.

Sometimes, less fortunate things happen too. David tells him in a quiet voice one day that the other lady told him that he's only hurting himself by surrounding himself with people that love him, that his death will be all the more hard for himself. "I think", David whispers, "That I'd rather say goodbye a thousand times than realise I've led a life without having had anyone to say goodbye to."

Bryan gets to know that David likes words and alphabets, languages in general. The boy keeps a book of words he likes (the leather bound one he always carries with him) and loves to repeat them a lot (auspicious, aussspiccciousss, au-spi-cious. Ciiiious) David starts learning new alphabets, but leaves his studies halfway to pursue another one. 

Sarah also stays over when she wants to. She and Hannah have a lot of serious conversations, but they also run around the house chasing each other with swords. Hannah is the one to give Sarah a book with baby names, where Sarah picked the name 'Sarah' from. Hannah also gives Sarah her own Mary Poppins-like umbrella with a built-in knife and Sarah cries and chases her screaming brother with it. "Exercise, Davey!" she yells as David transports himself out of her reach.

At the age of eleven, Sarah gets asked out by one Jack Kelly and she says yes. David is ecstatic because Jack comes over a lot and the three of them always play together , solidifying the band between them. Jack and David become best friends and Sarah breaks up with Jack because she feels like he plays more with her brother than with her. David and Sarah fight about it and make up again.

Bryan discovers another witch at school and to his surprise, the mark (invisible for people without the ability to detect magic) on JoJo's arm tells him they have a familiar. He is surprised that he really doesn't know who they're bonded with.

That very same day, he gets the answer to that question. He finds Specs sitting on the couch, sipping tea with his legs crossed and fingers clamping onto the cup. "Bryan, how does one break a bond?" The yellow and green mark on his arm shines softly and Specs' hands are shaking so badly, that Bryan's afraid that he might drop the cup.

"Why would you want to do that? It's just a friendship tattoo, essentially." 

Unamused, the boy smiles and recites a nursery rhyme that makes Bryan's skin crawl. He's heard it many times, but knowing where it came from, makes it all the worse.  
__  
"When the war was said and done  
Little Millie had a son  
He went on to marry her daughter  
Filled their days with endless (s)laughter  
Little Millie run away  
Or you'll be the next one he will slay  
When the war was said and done  
I had a child and Millie none!" 

"My grandmother's name is Émilie Lefay", Specs states and it's then that it hits Bryan. Of course he's the grandson of that girl. "I am sure you are familiar with her case, as it is quite famous. They're using Millie to ridicule her and even in death, they don't grant my parent their wish to be referred to as a parent. The problem is that I am not only my parent's child, but also my father's. I'm gonna fuck it up, please help me break it." 

"You'd have to JoJo out of your life completely, letting the bond fade of its own. But kid, that's not what we're going to do here. It's fine to take a bit of distance to gather your thoughts, or to not do anything with this bond at all until you feel ready to do so. If you want, you can specify the rules of your contract, but I do want you to know that you are not your father. Talk with your grandmother about this and she will tell you the same thing." 

After that, Specs still visits his office many times, doubts riddling his brain and making him shut out the magic he has grown up with. Slowly, there comes a change in it and he and JoJo practice little spells and he allows JoJo to peek at the world with magic in their eyes. 

David spends a lot of his time at Jack's house, befriends his siblings and sings Beyoncé songs with his mother in the kitchen. Or alternatively, broadway songs with Romeo as Jack watches in annoyance. 

At the age of twelve, David and Romeo form a bond and David follows the official protocol to the letter, weaving rules into the tattoo, while Romeo bounces excitedly, yammering on about magic and the fun and cool stuff they can do together. 

Both magical teams gather at Bryan's house to practice together and more than once either he or Hannah has to step in before serious injuries happen. Admittedly, Bryan thought that the partnerships weren't very logical. Specs and David are both on the more studious, serious side while JoJo and Romeo seem to be fueled by spontaneity. Then he witnesses Specs stop JoJo before they completely exhaust himself, taking care of the other in a responsible manner while Romeo jumps out of a window because he wants to fly. David mastered an anti-gravity spell in seconds, saving Romeo from an inevitable death.

So although the teams may not seem logical, they work in a learning environment. Sort of.

When David hits thirteen, Bryan and Hannah are invited to the boys bar mitzvah, which they attend proudly. It's also the year where they meet Katherine Plumber and the year where David and Jack decide to boycott the school system.

From what Bryan gathers from the boys, Katherine is a bossy wench. Later that evening he asks David and Sarah about it. Sarah defends Katherine vehemently, stating that the boys are just being mean, while David states that Katherine is cool, but hasn't learned the most important thing about friendship yet.

When Bryan inquires about what that lesson may be, David sighs sagely. "Friendship is like...communism. You've got to share with the group, nothing belongs to you solely anymore. She's gotta listen a bit instead of mowing over us with factual opinions. We're just a bunch of dumb bastards, I, no, we think."

A few days later, Katherine has joined the crew officially and they are boycotting the school, making full use of the newspaper club they founded themselves. The school had forbidden same gender couples at prom and even though these kids aren't even allowed to go to prom, they are revolting.

When asked why, Jack Kelly had uncomfortably rolled his shoulders and looked away. "Maybe some people...like uhmm people regardless of gender..." David Jacobs, seated right next to his best friend had plainly stated: "Bryan, I'm gay." So there was that. 

Pulitzer openly stated that there weren't even any gay couples in the school and the next day, two new students strolled around the campus, casually holding hands. Bryan has never seen them before, but the high-fives they exchange with Katherine tells him enough. 

The boys come to know that Pulitzer is Kath's father and most do not give a fuck except for Jack, who's known to be dramatic. David also retracts his statement about communism. "I don't want Pulitzer to be a parent figure in my life, he sucks. I'm quitting communism, socialism is where it's at."

Eventually the kids get over their differences and win their fight. Specs, David and Katherine also meet weekly to pretend to drink wine (they drink apple juice) and gossip about all the stupid shit the other newsies do. They're a group of Menacing Momfriends.

One way or another, Katherine becomes Jack's girlfriend and Bryan has two Jacobs siblings sprawled across the official distress couch at separate occasions. While Sarah plainly states that she's jealous, David has more difficulty doing so. The kid complains that it wasn't same as when he was Sarah's boyfriend and that he does not know how he feels about it. All sorts of emotions cross over his face, plain as day while David searches for the right words. Although he feels things intensely, the kid can never seem to put the right words on them and when Bryan suggest 'jealous', David's face falls. "That's an ugly emotion", he says and Bryan retorts: "Doesn't mean you're not allowed to feel it. Just don't let it ruin your friendship."

When Jack and Katherine end their relationship, Jack becomes an occupant of the distress couch. "What if no love of mine ever lasts? What if I'm not made to be loved?" There's so much genuine fear in the questions that Bryan looks at the boy in surprise. He decides to be realistic in his answer.

"Jack my boy,first of all, you're loved. If not by a significant other, it's by your family and friends. Secondly and this might be a bit conflicting with what you might be thinking, it's okay for things to be temporary. Just because it came to and end doesn't mean it wasn't fun. Love comes and goes and why shouldn't you act upon the feelings you have if it does not hurt the other person?" 

Jack considers it for a moment. "But it does hurt people, when the love falls away. I can't hold on to it and I really want to. I put whatever I have to offer in it, but it just goes." Bryan nods in understanding. "Maybe you should lay of the romance for a while and focus on your friendships? And should you be interested in someone, take it slowly instead of your usually fast paced dating. Maybe it helps, I don't know. Also, you're thirteen years old kiddo. The relationships you have now are not an indicator of your future at all, believe me." Jack leaves the office, still somewhat doubtful, but he does seek out his friends and showers them in affection. 

Fourteen and fifteen are difficult ages for David Jacobs, as anxiety hits him like a brick in the face. Of course he has a big support group, but it doesn't take away that his nervousness has increased by 300%. He's a bit of a walking wreck, but Romeo chats his ears off about "musicals this" and "I managed to change myself into a cat and I think I ate a bird and I now have traumas that" and tells him jokes via their shared connection during class.

Jack Kelly is a presence that glues itself to David, always touching him one way or another. Something about that boy seems to give David confidence and although it kind of hurts to realise that there are things where Bryan can't help, he's glad that at least someone else can.

Somewhere after David's fifteenth birthday, Bryan finds him on the distress couch again. "Jack's been making the eyes at me", David sighs and mimics the face of an in love Jack Kelly. "And...I like him, a whole lot. But Jack has a new partner every other week and I don't want to be one of those passing flings. I'm not gonna give in because I think he's cute. Or funny. Or really nice. Or-" David stops himself and buries his face in the couch. "I'm not gonna give in."

"I gave in", David announces a few days later as he bounces through the house, making wordless noises at the top of his lungs. 

Surprisingly enough, David and Jack are a solid couple until David starts acting up. 

It starts with him isolating himself and everyone quickly picks up on it and tried to get him out of it. Isolation is a death sentence to David Jacobs, but something has changed and it seems as though David has completely given up. He breaks up with Jack without any explanation and stays at his parents' house more than he should. 

The amount of seizures he gets increase drastically and whenever Bryan tries to reach out to the kid, he's met with the same answer. "It's time to let go, mister Denton."

Hannah and him frantically try to figure out what the fuck that curse is doing to their kid, but they get no results. The biggest red flag, is David breaking his own rules that he scrawled across his and Romeo's skin. When asked about what happened between them, Romeo has no idea who they are talking about, but tells them that his older brother left the house a while ago. 

They find Jack at Esther and Mayer's house, bleeding and confused. One sentence is all the boy can bring out before he faints. "David Jacobs is no more."

They try to find him, for two whole days. After that, David Jacobs fades from conversations and Bryan can't stand it. As he opens a bottle of wine, he spots the unopened folder that Hannah gave him a while ago. Why he does it, he doesn't know, but Bryan opens it. In a neat print, the name "David Jacobs" is put on the first page and Bryan immediately closes it. He thought he was escaping his job, escaping the experience of having a child ripped away way too soon. Turns out he's just too fucking good at doing his job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hit me up on tumblr if you'd like (rivertellsstories). Thank you for reading/comments/kudos/whatever you feel like!


	19. Please give me the aliens back.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On their way to Bryan's house, Finch skips along the road, Henry trailing behind him. Suddenly, he comes to a halt and turns around to face his friend. "Do you think we should call the cops? Because shit is actually getting really weird."
> 
> Henry snorts in return. "You actually trust the cops?" Finch glances at Henry and sighs. "I wish I could. You know what? I'm gonna become a cop. A reasonable one. Join me."
> 
> "My fellow officers would shoot me, because they see my skin colour before my uniform", Henry deadpans and Finch slaps him on the shoulder. "I'd say that I'd be your token white buddy, but..." He tugs at his raven hair and points at his tanned skin. Henry laughs. "Let's become buddy cops. You, me and a glass of milk for our own safety."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi y'all, after this chappie we can finally get back to the Demon's Den itself, without all the backstories whooo! Injury is gonna happen heck yeah. Also for context, I'm taking Aaron Albano as Finch nd Demarius R Copes for Henry because I can.

On their way to Bryan's house, Finch skips along the road, Henry trailing behind him. Suddenly, he comes to a halt and turns around to face his friend. "Do you think we should call the cops? Because shit is actually getting really weird."

Henry snorts in return. "You actually trust the cops?" Finch glances at Henry and sighs. "I wish I could. You know what? I'm gonna become a cop. A reasonable one. Join me."

"My fellow officers would shoot me, because they see my skin colour before my uniform", Henry deadpans and Finch slaps him on the shoulder. "I'd say that I'd be your token white buddy, but..." He tugs at his raven hair and points at his tanned skin. Henry laughs. "Let's become buddy cops. You, me and a glass of milk for our own safety."

"Fuck yeah, Henry, Finch and Glass saving teens of colour! I like it."

"Shut it dork. Is this the house?" Henry points at a brightly coloured door with paint handprints on it. "Yep. Do you think he's got kids? I mean, that door is obviously the result of a kid goin' wild."

"Heck if I know, we aren't here for his kids, we're here for David." When they ring the doorbell and ask about David Jacobs, Bryan looks like they punched him in the gut. After he invites them inside and they ask him to come with them to the dd, to meet David Jacobs, he stands up and opens a folder. After reading whatever is in there, he slams it shut again.

"Take me there", he says with a shaking voice and then he turns around and calls out: "Hannah, they found David!" Hannah comes running down the stairs and gives all of them a nod. "Let's fucking go."

Standing in front of the library, bike still in his hand, Spot realises that he's once again waiting for someone who isn't gonna show up. When David was still around, Spot would never have taken him for a person he would miss but here they are.

Maybe it's not that much David himself that Spot misses (it's an awful sentence in his head, but they were never that close. David just tutored him), but the bridge David built between their two rivalling groups of friends. Well actually, Spot cornered him one day, forcefully demanding help in English lit. Very hesitantly and probably very scared, David had complied with his request. 

With David, came two absolute shitheads. There's no other way to describe the pair of boys that came storming into the library one day, seizing David by his arms. "Out with the nerd!" Race whisper-yells and yes Spot knows his name, because he knows all of Jack's underlings' names. He's a tactical person.

"I think the amount of oxygen outside this musty library might actually kill him, Racer." David rolls his eyes at Albert's remark, but he gets dragged outside nonetheless. Spot follows, not quite sure of what to do otherwise.

The four of them end up laying down unto the grass in a nearby park. It's somewhere between spring and summer. The sun shines brightly, making the temperature more than enjoyable and Spot is pretty sure that David just straight up passed out, backpack propped under his head. "Look at that, a musty dusty book boy out of his natural element." David flips Race off by means of answering.

After that, Race and Albert seem to have taken a liking to him. These stupid boys cross the bridge between their opposing groups without any hesitation, stupid grins plastered across their faces. Spot allows them in his space, curious about what exactly they're after.

Never fucking mind, Spot wishes he had beat them both to a pulp when he still had the chance. Now, they are at the point where these gremlins think it's fine and dandy to wake him up at two in the fucking morning. Even worse, these bastards think he will just follow them into the woods at two in the morning! The sheer audacity of them.

A little bit later, they are laying on a hill, watching the starry night sky. It's a pretty sight, but so is his bedroom. When he asks about why they are watching the stars, Albert scoffs in offence. "Who said anything about the stars? We're looking for aliens, dumbass." Spot shoots a questioning glance at Race, who shrugs and smiles in return. So this is his reality now huh?

Although both Albert and Race can both be categorized under the term 'utter bastard', Spot can't help but notice the differences between them. Buried underneath of defensive shittyness, Race is pretty emotional, hell, the boy is sappy. Albert doesn't bury his emotions anywhere, but he has difficulties expressing himself. He raises his voice often, but forgets nuances a lot.

Although Race and Albert are the closest of friends, they don't know everything about each other. Spot sees what Race does not, which is Albert receiving first aid kits and long lasting crackers from the dude that helps Spot with his anger issues. Dexton? Densen? Heck, like he knows.

But the habit of keeping hold of food that doesn't expire fast and things to cover wounds with, hit a bit too close home for Spot to shut up about it.

It's a chilly night where fog is hiding most of the stars when Spot confronts Albert about it and immediately, his body shuts down in defence. There's a tense silence, in which Spot is waiting for a reaction.

"Don't tell Racer" are the first words that make it past Albert's lips as he twirls a kazoo (definitely stolen from Race) in his fingers. "Don't tell him", Albert repeats louder and hugs himself close. "Don't."

In a strange bout of vulnerability, Spot rolls onto his side and lift his shirt the tiniest bit, revealing a purple coloured bruise. "I really won't, I know-" He cuts himself off there, not wanting to continue. Spot Conlon doesn't like admitting weaknesses and he's not about to now. No one needs to know.

But Albert, with his big curious eyes, lifts the shirt back up until he exposes the whole extent of the bruise and whispers a quiet: "Shit dude." With next to no hesitance, he opens the buttons on his own shirt, showing the various discolourations on his own body.

"So we're both fucked", Spot states, a bitter laugh escaping him and Albert nods. "Until I'm eighteen, yeah. After that I'll leave and search for my older brothers. If I leave earlier, my dad will get me back one way or another." There's a certainty in Albert's voice, as though he's tried to escape before. Holding out his fist, Spot sighs. "To a better life after eighteen." Albert knocks their fists together and echoes the statement.

Some days, it's just the two of them in the woods, talking about things they don't want to bother their other friends with. Sometimes, they fight each other there, no holding back at all. It's not the right person they're fighting, but at least they have the option to fight back this time.

It's after one of those fights, when Albert has fallen asleep, sprawled over Spot's chest, that Race appears. Spot himself had almost fallen asleep, until someone nearly tripped over him. "What the-Spottie? Al?" In the dim light of Race's flashlight, he can see a bastardy grin appearing on the other boy's face. "Don't let little old me disturb your activities." Groaning, Spot tries to flip him off, but fails because he's still stuck underneath Albert.

The movement however, wakes Albert up and Race waves at his best friend. "Has the list of boyfriends gotten longer?" he asks cheekily and Albert snorts in return. "If Spot wants to be added to the list, sure."

"What?"

"One time, Al picked up a girl's wallet at McDonalds and she from that moment on, she decided that our dearest Al was her boyfriend. Without telling him, of course. But Albert kept hanging out with other people and she confronted him about his unfaithfulness in their first meeting place, yelling about his slutty, slutty ways and his horde of partners."

"I was with Blink and Mush at the time. Blink laughed at me and Mush tried to rationalise with her. When that didn't work out, Blink added fuel to the fire by licking my cheek. It was fucking gross. She stormed out after that, crying."

"..."

"Yeah, wanna be added to my harem?" Spot shrugs "Eh why not."

Because of their habit to go star, erhm alien spotting at night, they built a treehouse and Race proclaimed himself king. Spot had grabbed him by his shirt and let him hang outside the window as Race screamed bloody murder. He had a tight enough grip on Race to not let him fall, but then suddenly Albert entered the treehouse. "Hi guys", he said casually and Spot jumped and nearly let go of Race. Luckily enough, he was able to drag him back inside.

It's also in this treehouse that Race quietly asks them to come over to his house when they don't feel safe at their own. He doesn't ask for explanations, but offers help nonetheless. "There's not a lot I can do but I want to help. Please remember that neither of you are a bother. I love you both a lot and I hate that I can't do more."

Albert swallows roughly and asks Race how he knew and Race smiles in return. "I've got good eyes and a sharp brain my dude. Wanna hear about the theories I have about the zodiac killer?" Albert agrees enthusiastically and just like that, Race turns the mood around again. Making things look brighter is a true Racetrack Higgins talent.

It's weird to think about that time, since they're so distant now. They are back at square one, before their first official meeting in the library. He's 'Conlon' now, the name spit out with a generous amount of animosity. So when he turns around and sees Race running at him, dragging Albert behind him, he doesn't know what to think. Especially not when the first words out of Race's mouth are: "Hello Spottie, you know a fella named David Jacobs?" He ends up following the two of them to the dd, not quite knowing what to do otherwise.

When Sarah opens the door, the first thing Katherine does is plant a kiss on her girlfriend's lips. "Hello beautiful." Sarah suppresses a smirk. "Oh my, how bold you are miss Plumber." A bit awkwardly she waves at the two young men standing behind her. "Hello, I don't think we've met yet."

The blond one gives her a charming smile and extends his hand. "We're her parents." The young man with the spectacles rolls his eyes and swats the other one on the chest. "Bill, be nice. My name is Darcy Reid, this is my boyfriend William Hearst Junior."

Bill looks at his boyfriend in utter disgust. "Don't pull the William card please, I swear I'll be nice."

"Anyway", Katherine cuts in, "We've got to speak to that little brother of yours. Does he know a David, by any chance?"

At first, Sarah doesn't know whether she should go get Les. This could either bring her little brother back or destroy their bond for good. As she looks in Katherine's eyes, she doesn't see dishonesty, only determination. There's more going on than she knows, but she trusts Katherine. "Les?" she shouts. "Can you come down for a minute?" she asks as she ushers the three of them inside.

After greeting them politely, Les keeps warily standing in the doorway. "Can you tell us about David Jacobs?" Katherine Pulitzer, right to the point as always. Immediately, Les scowls in anger. "I'm not telling you shit!" he yells at Sarah. "Just leave me alone! Getting your girlfriend to interrogate me is nasty, Sarah."

"Sarah didn't put me up to anything", Katherine states calmly. "All I'm doing is trying to save a friend. His name is David Jacobs and he isn't doing too well. Someone told me you might know who he was."

"Tell me something typical about him", Les demands. "Something that stuck out to you. Prove to me that you met him."

Sarah can see Katherine thinking and she also notices the slight panic on her girlfriend's face. "Fuck, I haven't had real deep talks with him, shit ehm.." Les' face falls and he scoffs. "See? This is a bunch of fucking bullshit."

"He had very peculiar socks", Darcy remarks and Les' head snaps up again. Darcy continues. "They were godawful." Bill pouts. "They were not. Let the man wear Hello Kitty socks in peace."

"David had a lot of stupid socks", Les states, voice shaking. "He would wear them to school and Sarah hated it, so naturally I did it too. Me and David teamed up a lot to pester Sarah and I teamed up with Jack to pester Davey. It was a lot of fun. One time we all decided to wear crocs to annoy Davey, but he upstaged us all by wearing socks in them."

Les runs upstairs and comes back into the living room with a box that Sarah's never seen before. It has a lock on it and when opened, it reveals a bunch of pictures, some drawings, something that looks like a dictionary and various other objects.

Katherine picks up one of the drawings and immediately recognises Jack Kelly's drawing style. It's a drawing of David next to a pint of beer with the caption 'Pint sized Jacobs'. In another handwriting, a way less readable one, was written: 'Curse you Jack Kelly. One day I will grow taller than you, just the tiniest bit so I can laugh at you forever. You will hear me laughing from two inches above you.'

There are a bunch of pictures of David with various newsies, a diary signed with a barely readable 'David Jacobs' and all the evidence of his brother's existence, doesn't make Sarah remember anything. There are pictures of their whole family, but Sarah feels nothing except for curiosity when looking at them.

"Can you tell us about him?" Katherine asks and Les shakes his head vehemently. "I don't wanna talk about Davey, I wanna see him! Please, I wanna see my brother." Les looks like they might actually deny his request and it breaks Sarah's heart. "I'll call mom and dad, I think they might want to meet him too."

"Mom tried to fucking kill him. We're not telling her", Les spits out. "What?" Scowling angrily, Les crosses his arms. "Like, two days before he disappeared, mom put peanuts in a dish. Davey is deathly allergic to em and she knows it. She also tried to strangle him."

The older teens exchange glances, not knowing how to react to that. "I think we should bring her along", Sarah decides. "I know I'd win in a wrestling match, do not worry." After a quick call to their parents and giving them the address, they leave the house. Les is bouncing excitedly, a hand clasped in Sarah's. "We're gonna see Davey, Saz! We're gonna see Dave!"

Memories of a boy sitting on her kitchen counter, singing Beyoncé songs at the top of his lungs come rushing back, when Romeo, Elmer and Jack question her about David Jacobs. Medda smiles ruefully. "A wonderful kid, that one. When he came around he was either all over Jack or studying magic with Romeo, there was no casual in between, unless the whole group was here. I don't know where he disappeared to and the last person that spoke with him, didn't even remember he existed until apparently, two minutes ago."

Jack shifts closer to his mother. "Who was the last person that saw him?" Medda tucks a stray curl behind his ear. "It was you, sweetie. Completely angry, you ran after him after he put a spell on Romeo without his consent."

Romeo squints in suspicion. "What kind of spell did he put on me?"

"He erased himself from your memory."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank y'all for reading/commenting/kudos, whatever ya feel like! I'm Rivertellsstories on tumblr and you can ask me a n y t h i n g from hc's to little drabbles!


	20. I spy, with my little eye, somebody about to die.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The door flies open and a tiny child stumbles inside, flying past the group already gathered there. Suddenly he skids to a halt and frantically turns around. "Where's Davey?" he blurts out and it's at that moment that Specs notices the similarities between the kid and David.
> 
> Before any of them can tell him that they haven't seen David yet, a quiet gasp can be heard. "Les?" There's a crack in David's voice and the kid's face brightens. "Davey!" he yells and flings himself at him, burying his face in his shirt. Disbelief evident on his face, David puts his arms around him with rigid movements.
> 
> There's something about the whole scene that kind of bothers Specs, but he can't exactly put his finger on it. It's when David pulls out a knife and gets barrelled over by another David screaming "No!" that he realizes that David should not have any idea who the squirt is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all this is the second to last chapter I'm-

The door flies open and a tiny child stumbles inside, flying past the group already gathered there. Suddenly he skids to a halt and frantically turns around. "Where's Davey?" he blurts out and it's at that moment that Specs notices the similarities between the kid and David.

Before any of them can tell him that they haven't seen David yet, a quiet gasp can be heard. "Les?" There's a crack in David's voice and the kid's face brightens. "Davey!" he yells and flings himself at him, burying his face in his shirt. Disbelief evident on his face, David puts his arms around him with rigid movements.

There's something about the whole scene that kind of bothers Specs, but he can't exactly put his finger on it. It's when David pulls out a knife and gets barrelled over by another David screaming "No!" that he realizes that David should not have any idea who the squirt is.

As the two Davids wrestle each other, his grandma stretches out her arms, separating the boys. As she holds them apart, she asks: "Which one of you two is the real David?" Of course both of them try to convince her that they are in fact, David Jacobs. "Now this is just fucking inconvenient. Do you guys know anything that might help us tell them apart?" She turns towards the huge group of people.

"Uhh...", Jack starts eloquently. "Actual David doesn't know shit either. We're in kind of a pickle right now. If fake-Davey pretends to not know shit either, we're not gonna get anywhere."

"Thanks for giving fake-Dave advice Jackie boy", Henry dryly states and Finch sighs, while JoJo makes the sign of the cross. "Lord above, help us fools."

"This a Jewish household and I will not tolerate crosses in here", one of the David's jokes and Jack points at him and screams: "Actual David confirmed!"

Immediately, Specs' grandma lets the guy go and he scrambles towards them, until he disappears into thin air halfway there. Fake-David pries himself from the Madame Lefay's grasp. Growling, he turns towards them and out of his open mouth, two tongues roll out. The thing that once resembled David falls apart, seems stuck between multiple appearances and it howls.

Suddenly, its head snaps up and it looks at the staircase for a minute before scaling it. "Do we follow that?" Tommy Boy asks uncertainly and Jack shrugs. "Fuck if I know. Can one of the adults chime in please?" Before any of them can, the house shifts around them and the group gets torn apart.

"Oh how fucking wonderful", Specs murmurs under his breath, making the people he's still with (Crutchie, Finch, Henry and Tommy Boy) look at him curiously. "You alright there Specs?" Henry asks and he quickly replies: "Yes." When he sees them exchange doubtful looks, he sighs. "No. I'm nervous as hell and I've got the feeling something bad's gonna happen. Also, I'm kind of scared, but it that leaves the group I will be forced to never speak to any of you again."

"You're a dramatic ass bitch, give me your arm", Tommy Boy says and as soon as Specs does so, he hooks their arms together. Crutchie takes his other hand while Finch wraps his scarf around Specs' neck. "Insta-comfort baby", Henry adds. "Doesn't it make you feel nice and warm?" Specs snorts. "You're all ridiculous. And kinda, yes."

Katherine's eyes are wide and panicked as they settle themselves on Hannah, who tries to console the girl. "Don't move", she says as she beckons Bill and Darcy closer. Carefully the three of them inspect the strange contraption Katherine is trapped in. As Bill reaches out to touch the thing, she slaps him on the wrist. "Don't touch that. As soon as anything touches that, it'll behead her for sure."

"You know your stuff, Miss Head of the House of Protectors." A lady clad in red appears before them and there's something about her that's just absolutely vile. "Here's the thing, I did not count on another person remembering that Jacobs kid. You're annoyingly way above me in rang, so here's the deal. Give up you memories of that kid and stay out of this. At the end of my little ceremony, the girl is freed and all of you leave. Or you decide that you'd rather remember the kid and she dies right now."

Fuck. The lady does not seem to be very patient, as she yank Bill towards her and before she can harm one of those three kids, Hannah gives in. "Fine. I need an Unbreakable Promise before I give you anything though." The two women clasp their hands together, agreeing upon the terms and conditions of the promise. When Hannah pulls her hand back, she sighs sadly. Concentrating, she holds her hands in front of her and they get filled with little pearls akin to snow globes, with tiny scenes playing inside them. Hannah hands them over and the lady disappears.

"We're all gonna die, we're all gonna dieeeee", Romeo sings as he snaps his fingers and cries. Oblivious and supporting as always, Elmer happily joins him and claps in his hands while faking a bass to Romeo's shaking tenor. "Do you...do you ever worry about the mental state of you little brother?" Albert asks Race, who shakes his head. "After worrying about every friend I have for too long, I've decided to accept the fact that we're all fucked one way or another." He turns towards Romeo and grabs his hand. "C'mon, we've gotta move forward. I'm here, we're gonna be alright."

"So what the fuck are we gonna do you guys?" Blink asks, looking at Mush, JoJo and Buttons. "I suggest we-"

"Guys, what are we gonna do?" Jack Kelly asks Mike, Ike and every Jacobs except Les and David. Right after asking that question, he comes eye to eye with an unamused Blink. "Great, another few dumbasses", Blinks says. "And we still don't know what to fucking do. Hey you!" he shouts at Esther Jacobs. "Don't you have some crazy mom-instincts that tells you where your children are? It could be helpful."

"No?"

"JoJo, you're a witch. Do some magic." Immediately JoJo visible whitens. "Oh God I don't know anything about witchcraft, please don't put that kind of responsibility on me, I'll cry." As Buttons rubs JoJo's back supportively, Specs rounds the corner casually. "Hi guys, I found y'all with a little flick of magic."

"Rub it in why don't you", JoJo pouts as the rest of Specs group arrives. "Headcount!", Jack shouts. "Is anyone missing a buddy?" Then he stops suddenly and proclaims: "I'm missing a buddy! Where's Kath?" He looks around frantically. "Oh no. I can't be the single parent of all these children. I'll fail and child protection services will take them away. Someone please help me."

"My youngest is missing, as are the two young men accompanying Katherine." Race raises his hand. "Spottie and Bryan too. Also mom. " Buttons takes a quick look around. "Miss Hannah is also not here. Oh and Specs' granny."

"Oh yeah...kind of forgot about her", Specs admits as his grandmother appears and gives him a soft smack on the head. "Ungrateful child, let's go find the rest of this group."

Memory pearls. The room is chock-full of them and the sheer amount of them tells him that there's no way that they came from just one person. Gently, Bryan lifts a tiny one from a shelf and a glittery scene bursts alive. He sees a spell being fired at David and right before it hits him, a dark shadow swoops in. Barely a second later, the body of a raven hits the floor and Les whispers: "Edgar Chicken Little."

"A fine bird", Medda remarks and Spot scowls. "It was a bitch-bird, don't lie." There's a chorus of general agreement. "So what's the plan of action?" Spot asks after they've all come to the consensus that Edgar the raven was a fucking dipshit bird. "I'd say, find David", Bryan says. "But I'd also like to protect these. They are everyone's memories, including David's, about David. If we leave them here, they can be destroyed."

Spot shrugs. "If we're gonna care more about a bunch of memories instead of an actual person, I'm just gonna go ahead and leave you in a room where you can look at those memories all the time. I think creating new ones just might be a bit more important than guarding old ones."

"The boy's got a point", Medda remarks. "Let's find David." Les raises a tiny hand. "One question y'all. How do we leave a room without a door?" Spot, eloquent as ever sighs tiredly. "Fucking hell."

Once again the room shifts and twists until it becomes bigger and a machine appears in the midst of it. There are also two long tables placed in the room. "Are those operating tables?" Les squeaks and ducks behind Medda. "Yup I recognize those", Spot says accurately but not very comfortingly. A black mass shapes itself onto one of the tables and they watch as it becomes David Jacobs.

When it keeps glitching, they know that it isn't actually him. With a certain tread, Medda approaches it as Bryan questions her intentions. "Don't worry, it's cuffed to the table", she says and takes a look at its twitching form. "Poor thing looks like it's in pain."

Carefully Bryan inches closer to take a peak at it. "Well yeah, if you're gonna cram that many souls into one container, it'll get confused about its identity. We can't do anything about it though, since none of us are witches."

A soft humming resonates through the room and the four of them look around, trying to locate it's source. "Boo", someone whispers in Les' ear and the kid screams, while Spot immediately pulls him behind him. The Lady in Red, Dobah Yaakov, lets out a blood-curdling laugh as she carelessly puts another heap of pearls on a shelf. "The last four keys", she whispers longingly. "Finally, finally, I can see my little Leah again. My beautiful daughter, so young, ripped away from too soon." Her lifeless eyes settle themselves on Bryan and she scowls. "You let her die!"

"Believe me, if there was any way to save that child, I would've done it", he bites back. "But there is, Bryan", she whispers. "I've finally got it! The problem, you see, was the souls. I used the souls instead of turning them into energy and now they're rotten and unusable. However, now I'm on the right path. All of these memories and that boy's soul, turned to energy, surely that must be enough to bring my beloved daughter back? And his body will suffice as a cage for the rotten ones."

A look of alarm and understanding appears on Bryan's face. "All of those lost souls....Whose body did you put them in?" Slowly she tilts her head. "I carried whatever was left of her out of that godawful fire. Over the years, I managed to gather enough materials to replace what was lost and I disposed of the rest. Nobody misses those people anyway and they keep each other company in my daughter's body." A sickening twisted version of motherly love and hope appears on her face. "But soon she'll be back! And if that damned boy doesn't give me enough energy, I'll use his friend too. They found the book after all, they'll be lured down without a question, should I need them."

Then, her facade is all coolness again. "I need your memories. Give them to me, help me reunite with my child." There are various reactions, but Spot Conlon says it the best. "Fuck no, you creepy ass woman. I'm not gonna get involved in necromancy."

"You know what it's like to lose a child. You've bid so many farewell", she calmly addresses Bryan. "You also know that there is no saving this kid. Why not just let go?" He laughs in her face. "I know", he says loudly, "That I'd rather say goodbye a thousand times than realise that I've thrown away the opportunity to say goodbye even once."

He throws himself forward, but she raises an invisible wall, separating everyone from her. "You're a fool. For now, I'll work with what I have." She plucks a bowl filled with memory pearls from a desk and pours them into the machine. As they get crushed between the gears, the many souls stuck into one body scream and she silences them with a gesture of her hand. Then she flicks her hand again and David Jacobs materialises at her feet, unconscious and paler than ever. She takes the boy and shackles him to the other table.

Luckily, everything seems to go to shit for her at that moment. Three other ghosts appear, who seem very intent on screwing up Dobah's plans. The tiniest one is tearing out the gears as the other little girl protects her from Dobah. It goes well until Dobah makes her disappear in a red flash. As the girl bursts into a heap of glittery energy that immediately gets sucked into the machine, the other one screams: "Abby!" Barely two seconds later, she herself is no more as well. The only one left, is the gangly, bald man.

"Dobah, please stop", he says. "Leah doesn't want this either, she has done everything she could to stop this. She's been leading you astray, restoring some memories where she could. Please stop this and let all of us move on."

A young woman appears at his side. "Dad's right mom." She takes hold of her hands. "Please stop and let go. I don't want this, this is awful and has been going on for too long." With tears in her eyes, Dobah gasps and brushes a lock of her daughter's hair behind her ear. "Leah", she whispers, "You're so solid." Her tone changes from moved to wicked. "It's working."

"No! Mom, please,-" Without listening to her daughter, she pushes her husband in the machine as well. There's fear in Leah's eyes as her mother softly guides her towards it as well. "Baby, I know which soul is yours, but this is necessary to transport you into your body. Don't worry, mama's got you", she whispers as she dissolves her daughter's soul in the machine as well.

"She's gonna kill Davey", Les sobs and there's nothing Bryan can say to dispute it.

And then, Hannah bursts through the ceiling like some fucking comic book superhero. "You!" Dobah shouts. "You made an Unbreakable Promise!"

"Surprise bitch!" Hannah yells back. "The first thing you learn in college is to fake one! Also, this magnificent young man here", she pulls an awkward looking Darcy close by his shoulders, "apparently knows how machines work! He dismantled your trap, bitch!"

"Thanks for the praise Ma'am", Darcy coughs politely. "But I don't think he's doing so well", he says and points at the unconscious David. "Oopsie doopsie fuck. Freeze motherfucker!" she yells at Dobah and aims her umbrella at her. A light bursts from it, trapping the woman in a stream of light. "Okay!" she yells at the newsies looking from the hole in the ceiling. "I need exactly three witches! We're gonna need a Council of Three for a minor exorcism."

Katherine, JoJo and Specs' grandma climb down as well. "Here's the plan of action. You three, get those souls out of that body and also out of that machine. Darcy, you dismantle that whole ass thing. Specs, you break that barrier and Bryan, wake the boy up please. The others, please stand back."

As Dobah throws curses at them, Madame Lefay takes the two younger witches under her arm and starts the ritual, while Darcy expertly disassembles the machine. The barrier gets broken and within seconds, Bryan is next to the boy. "David, David, please come back my boy." He lets his aura shine out like a beacon. And lo and behold, the kid opens his eyes. He coughs a few times and leans back heavily, but like hell Bryan's gonna let him slip away again. "Stay here, kid."

The machine is in shambles by now, the other body has stopped twitching and the room is filling itself up with the freed ghosts of formerly doomed Jacobs and Yaakovs. It goes well until Dobah breaks free, destroys Hannah's umbrella and shatters all memory pearls in one go. "You can't stop me!" she yells like a madwoman as the memories turn into pure energy.

And then, Romeo reaches out towards the dust and as soon as he touches it, it reverts back to its previous state. Another light touch of him makes the pearls disappear and Finch's mouth falls open. "Oh", he says quietly. "I do know David. Oh my fuck, I know David."

"How?" The woman screeches and Romeo blinks. "Fuck if I know." Within seconds she's all up in his face and she scowls. "You still have your memories, but they're hidden behind some sort of a wall. What's up with that?"

Hannah laughs. "He's got a whole intact memory hidden from you and the key to revert the effects of your spell. Do you know how easy it is to share spells via mindconnection with your familiar? David built himself a safe in Romeo's head."

"That's cool and all", Bryan interrupts, "But how are we gonna get rid of her?" Hannah bites her lip. "I'd say open a door to the world of the death and force everyone through. But none of us can open it unless we kill someone."

"That's not necessary", David coughs. "I'm already halfway there, I'll force it open just a bit more. You guys have to do the rest."

With the last bit of strength he can muster, David throws the door to the underworld wide open and every witch assembled works the ghosts through it. Dobah Yaakov screams as she fades from this world and other members of the family take the time to thank him. Evan and Ethan wave him quickly goodbye. "So long sucker!"

"Bye bye Davey", Rebecca sobs as Abby tells her not to cry with tears in her own eyes. They leave after a hug. Ernst hugs him as well before going and whispers: "Press f to pay respects, homie." Leah apologises. "Sorry. You don't deserve what you've had to endure up till now. Please make the best of the rest of your life." David nods. "Will do."

When every ghosts has left, David collapses into a heap on the floor. He waves away the concerned gazes and demands the following: "Please take me outside. I can't muster the energy to move on my own any more, but I don't want to spend another minute in this house.Please, please take me outside."

They comply to his request. It's rainy outside and as soon as David feels himself get soaking wet, he bursts into tears. "It's raining", he sobs, "and I can actually feel it. It's raining." After those words David slumps back into his father's arms. "David?" Mayer asks in a concerned voice. "He's getting cold", the man whispers and Bryan sees the letters he read in that folder this morning come to life right before his very own eyes. 'At the age of fifteen, David Jacobs disappears. At the age of seventeen he dies, surrounded by his closest friends and family.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Demon's den chapter five: "I'm fine, but school's sucking the life right outta me." David doesn't react to the joke like Jack thought he would. His shoulders sag and he seems more tired than ever. "That isn't fun."  
> -> hahahaha getting the life sucked outta ya, gettit?  
> Please don't drop this story just yet, things have yet to happen  
> Anyway, thanks for reading/kudos/comments, whatever ya feel like! I'm rivertellsstories on tumblr if you want to angrily yell at me.


	21. The end is upon us, fri-END-s hahahaha.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bryan has seen a plethora of his kids die before. The circumstances are always different, but David isn't the first one to go surrounded by people who absolutely love him. As he tucks a stray curl behind the kid's ear, he notices how sloppy his whole hairstyle looks. Probably cut it himself. Should Bryan try to wake him up, the kid would have problems for life. There's no way his body would be in the same shape as it was in before a whole body and soul separation process. The kid's own memories or the ones other people have about him may become jumbled or lost. But hell, he would be alive and that's all they really want.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it guys.

Bryan has seen a plethora of his kids die before. The circumstances are always different, but David isn't the first one to go surrounded by people who absolutely love him. As he tucks a stray curl behind the kid's ear, he notices how sloppy his whole hairstyle looks. Probably cut it himself. Should Bryan try to wake him up, the kid would have problems for life. There's no way his body would be in the same shape as it was in before a whole body and soul separation process. The kid's own memories or the ones other people have about him may become jumbled or lost. But hell, he would be alive and that's all they really want.

"Hannah, please tell me you know how to transfer life energy", he says in their native tongue to avoid giving the people around them false hope. As she purses her lips, she nods. "Of course I do. Let me guess, you're gonna trade your years for his. Why are you pulling this self sacrificing shit now? He isn't the first."

Her words are harsh, but Bryan knows that it's just Hannah making sure that he isn't doing stupid shit. There's also a slight fear in there. Hannah and Bryan have been a team since kindergarten eons ago and he's about to throw it away. And it's that long bond of being close that confirms his decision before he can properly voice it. "You know, if I had known about that option at Leah's time, I would've done it right then and there. All of this shit wouldn't have happened either. I'm tired, really tired and I involuntarily started it. Let it end here, please."

"Yanno", Specs casually interjects and Bryan facepalms. He forgot that that kid was from the other side too. "Didn't we already establish that bringing people back to life gives nothing but absolute shit?" Bryan gives him a rueful smile. "The difference here, is that I want it. I'm giving it, no one's taking it forcefully."

There is doubt evident on the boy's face, but for now both protectors ignore it as they stare each other down. Hannah gives in first. "Oh you stupid, kind soul", she breathes as she gives him a punch on the arm. "I'll do it, but don't come whining when you actually die." There's no more words to waste and Hannah gently takes David from Mayer's arms. "Please lend me the kinda corpse for a moment, we're gonna do some legal reviving." Before any questions can be asked, she yanks Bryan closer and after that he doesn't know what she does because all he can think is 'oh my fucking god this hurts beyond hell, I would like it to stop please, death sounds pleasant right now, huh this must be how my students feel during finals.'

And then, everything halts. As a bright light dims, Jack Kelly voices what's going through everyone's head. "What the fuck just happened?" Bryan doesn't feel inclined to answer, head reeling and feeling as though he's about to puke.

A shiver visibly runs through David's body and Hannah passes him back to his father. "I'm gonna call an ambulance, this kid is probably going into a shock and way worse. Also, the police are gonna have a field day trying to work out what happened to him. Just pretend you didn't know shit and let it remain a mystery." As Hannah distorts her voice while talking to the paramedics, Bryan urges the other kids to leave. "I know you're worried and confused, but right now it wouldn't do you any good to stay." He, Hannah and the Jacobs wait until they see the ambulance in the distance. With pained expressions on their faces, they let their family member go. When the authorities visit them later that day and inform them that their son has been found, they pretend to be shocked.

David is in the same condition as someone who has been recently run over by a small truck. In the desert. He's severely dehydrated, has a lot of suspicious bruising and scars and the doctor's aren't sure that the boy will wake up. They have told Esther, Mayer, Sarah and Les to prepare to say goodbye, but they got stubborn Jacobs-denial in return. None of them have given up on David, they a share an unadulterated belief that he will pull it through.

And he does. When the lady at the reception gives Bryan and Hannah a look and tells the Jacobs that only close family is allowed to see David, Esther rapidly spits "They are", right back at her. There is too much finality in her voice to ignore, so they go along. Silence surrounds them as they make their way through the hospital.

Esther is the first to enter the room and as tears fill her eyes and as she strides closer to her now awake son and calls his name, David gets a panic attack. His words are slurred and soft, but there's too much fear for Esther to get closer to him. "I can't bring her back", David gasps, "Please stop. Leave me alone. Leave me alone!" As doctors rush in, Esther removes herself from the room.

As the doctors fuss about David, he keeps babbling and Bryan catches the name 'Dobah' in there. It seems that David is mixing his mother and the other woman up. He calms down when he doesn't see her any more and they get to talk to him for a little bit. "Hey kiddo", Mayer greets his son and David looks in his general direction, eyes never meeting his father's. "Hi dad", he finally answers, voice shaking lightly. "I can't see you."

"I know", Mayer states simply, because the doctors already notified him. "C'mere", he says and pulls his sobbing son close. Les doesn't wait any longer and flings himself at David as well. Sarah joins the hug circle a bit more graciously, but Bryan thinks he can hear David groan at her force nonetheless. "Where is mom?" David asks and Mayer tells him that David had just pointed her the door. "She sounded like...her", the boy whispers and when Esther enters again, David body goes taut. "Please leave. I can't..." His voice dies out and Esther complies, teary eyed.

After a while, David confesses to Bryan that he's uncomfortable being around his mother, because his memories had disappeared gradually in that house and the lady had taken advantage of that. She'd called herself Esther, called herself his mother and they are too interwoven in David's mind for him to be comfortable around her. They exchange messages through other people, trying to save the little that's left of their bond. Before Les can completely regard his mother as a villain, David and Sarah tell him the whole story. The kid still isn't about to forget his mom strangling his older brother. There's an acceptance but no forgiveness.

Memories return to people, somewhat. Romeo does his best to guide the pearls back to their right owners, but between his own confused mind and his very limited magical abilities, memories get lost. Some were already lost from the beginning. It makes evading the police a whole lot easier, but there's something painful about Sarah not being able to remember their shared seventh birthday. In a way that's alright, because David doesn't either.

Besides physical therapy (another fun side effect of being yanked back into your body, nothing works like it should. David couldn't move at all for a few good weeks and now he still has trouble with his legs), David also receives mental therapy from a nice older man named Kloppman. Bryan recognises him from the Other side and the older man gives him a conspiratorial wink. Hannah probably smuggled the guy into the hospital staff, ensuring that David doesn't have to hold back a single detail. It helps the boy a lot, but sometimes he freaks out and it takes hours to convince him that it's real, that he's free, that they aren't an illusion. Bryan wonders how many times freedom has been nothing but a dream for the kid.

When Jack visits him, the first thing David does is apologize. "I'm sorry. I know we were something but I can't do that right now." He gestures at the hospital bed and sighs. "I can't do a whole lot right now actually. Can't even read or watch cartoons any more. I tried listening to them, but the noise doesn't transfer to info in my head you know? It's like, I hear it but don't register it. It's bothersome. Anyway, sorry once more."

Jack sets himself down next to David and hugs him tightly. "Don't be sorry, you've got nothing to be sorry for. Also, you don't own me a romantic relationship my dude, friends before anything", he says and holds his hand out in a fist, waiting for a fist bump. David senses that Jack is waiting for something and highfives Jack instead. "You aimed really well for a blind man. How's it going with your eyes and the legs by the way? And are you on solid food yet?"

"Jack Kelly, a man of tact", David remarks dryly. He sighs. "Started solid food like three days ago and it's fucking disgusting. Not having to shove that into mouth was one of the peaks of hovering between death and life. The eyes probably aren't going to get better, which is fucking swell. Really loving that, it's nice to see my family again." His voice sounds wry, but before Jack can apologise, David moves on. "Legs are getting better, but Crutchie probably won't be the only crutch-user around. Which is great, considering I will probably have to use a ... blind people stick? What even is the word for that? I don't have three arms Jackie, it"

"They didn't tell you how to-?"

"They didn't tell me shit", David spits out, fury evident in both his face and voice. "It's great really, waking up in a place which they later tell you is a hospital. You want to reunite with your family but surprise! You can't even stand being in the same room as your mom. You call your little brother by the name of a ghost girl and even though you can't see it, you know very well how disappointed and hurt he is. You missed two years of school and who knows if you'll ever be able to go back, seeing as you're driving your family in financial ruin by being alive."

"Dave, we're glad you're alive. Don't worry about the financial side of things, that's been taken care of." He sees the expression on David's face and hushes him. "No one's taking pity to you, you're not a charity case yada yada. Hannah saved Kath and since she's your guardian and shit, Kathy thought this was a fair repayment."

As David is busy deciding whether he likes it or not (it doesn't have any effect on the outcome, Kath would pay even if it'd kill her) Crutchie comes in, whistling a happy little tune. "Sup Dave, how ya doin?" David shrugs. "Crappy. I'm bored, the food stinks, I'd like to learn Braille but nobody tells me how to and ughhh", he complains and flops back on the bed. "I'll be back in a minute", Crutchie announces and Jack sees an expression on his face he knows all too well. Ah, Charlie Morris is about to raise hell.

Half an hour later, he returns, smiling gently. "Dave, they'll be talking to you tomorrow about well...kind of everything. They said they didn't talk to you about mobility aids yet because they can't predict how much you'll be able to move after completing your healing process. Anyway, I think it's a bunch of bull. Ya wanna go out?"

"Fuck yeah", David answers and Jack pulls his sleeve. "Dude, y'aint able to walk, you haven't been outside in a good two years and you've also lost your sight. Is this a smart idea?" David scowls. "We're not doing smart ideas any more."

"That's a solid idea buddy", Specs, who for some godforsaken reason has a wheelchair with him, cheers and Romeo waves beside him. "We stole a wheelchair", he giggles and Jack sighs.

He doesn't even pretend to be surprised when they get greeted by all the other newsies in the hospital parking lot. David however, is obviously ecstatic. Luckily enough, there are a few people with common sense in their group of friends and they've arranged a picnic in Kath's garden, which is about the size of a big park. Les and Davey have an intense thumb wrestling match, which Les loses. Jack can't help but feel so, so proud when Race informs him that they have actual parental permission. They'll keep up the whole 'Escape-from-the-hospital-spiel' up because David thinks it's exciting, but responsible people are only a phone call away.

Life moves on. David still gets all sorts of therapy (it's a therapy buffet, all for me baby), moves on from a wheelchair to a walker. He manages to juggle a white cane and a walker in some way Jack doesn't really understand, but it works. The other teen has also stubbornly declared that he will graduate together with Mush, Jack, Sarah, Katherine, Blink and Specs. He can't go to school yet, panics after being out too long, after too much noise, after not enough noise. Sometimes he ignores the people around him until someone grabs him by the elbow and tells him everything is real. That no one's playing tricks on him.

Bryan keeps the kid in his and Hannah's house and tutors him as well. Elmer and Race like to chip in when they're talking about math, but their methods are so vastly different that David only ends up more confused. Romeo likes to hop in and gossip. The first time he saw him, David wanted to apologise, but Romeo waved it off. "Nah, shut up. It was unfair and bad of you, but I want some relative normalcy. Watch Wicked with me, I've got a top notch Willemijn bootleg."

Eighteen year old David Jacobs manages to graduate and get himself into college. He wants to be an English teacher and there ain't no stopping him. By then, he has managed to trade the walker in for a crutch and a crutch/white cane, but it's never gonna go further than that. Sometimes his body shuts down completely and David hates those days. "I wish this computer would calibrate correctly. I've got things to do."

He also manages to get himself into trouble at college. Romeo, Elmer and Albert had put their money and effort together to give David his own customised sunglasses (costumed to the tastes of those three at least). The image of pepe wearing sunglasses on his sunglasses are ignorable, with a bit of effort, but the sparkly 'I'm Jared, 19' is just plain obnoxious. The sunglasses and the crutches also tip people off about his blindness and a girl had asked rather loudly: "He's blind, he can't even read. What's he doing here?" To which David had responded by putting his cane against the desk and rubbing his palm over her forehead. "Your zits tell me you're a bitch, but you can't read that do you?" In the end he gets away with it.

There's also another thing that happens around that time. Specs gets himself into a fancy dance academy. In France. He doesn't pass up that chance and the newsies have to deal with a very mopy Romeo for a few weeks. The two had actually gone on a date, but Specs had broken it off and told Romeo about the possibility of him leaving. Romeo had kissed him and told him that it didn't matter, that they could have fun until then and that he wouldn't get hurt by Specs leaving. He ends up crying on his couch with his siblings dogpiling him and his mom making him chocolate milk.

Nineteen year old David Jacobs knocks on the door of his father and mother's house and when Esther opens, he invites her to a walk to the market. As she turns around to call her husband, so the two of them aren't alone, David shakes his head. "It's fine mom. Just you and me, we've got some catching up to do." That evening, when the whole Jacobs family is assembled at the dinner table (of course Hannah and Bryan are included, they're honorary members), things don't feel awkward. Les isn't glaring at his mother anymore, David and Sarah are jewifying vines (Here's the good kosher stuff-It's from the dollar store, how kosher can it be?) and Mayer is watching all of the chaos happen. It's good.

Some time later, the first marriage happens. No one is really surprised when a beautiful card arrives to announce Bill and Darcy's marriage, except for the press it seems. The two start their own newspaper and as soon as Darcy sees the slogan on the first printed copy of their own paper, he fights the urge to divorce his husband. "Have you Hearst the news?" is printed neatly on it and Bill's giddy smile is the only reason that he allows the slogan to stay there. Unfortunately, that's not the last of it. As he gets to the crossword page, he lays eyes on the atrocious title "Reidlles and other fun stuff".

The kids all slowly descend into adulthood and other marriages happen. Blink and Mush keep it small and cosy, but magical nonetheless. JoJo and Buttons have gone overseas as well, chasing their respective dreams (money and a clothes shop) together. They run into Specs in France and for some reason, the three of them start a clothing line that promotes Buttons to an important face in the fashion world. No one knows exactly how she came into the view as she did, but eh weird things happen with newsies around.

Eventually Specs returns at the age of twenty-seven and starts rooming with twenty-five year old Romeo. When Bryan asks if it isn't hard to room with his once-lover, Romeo shrugs. "I prefer having my husband in the same house."

All the newsies are gathered and making a ruckus, but that one little thing catches their attention. "Your what now?" Race screeches as Romeo shrugs. "Been married for three years already but we thought we'd hold a party once we're more together." After a lot of screeching from Race, they find out that the two never actually broke up and Specs transported a lot. Never for long, because his magical abilities wouldn't allow it, but long enough to get hitched, apparently.

Henry and Finch actually do become cops. After they passed their exams, they both put a milk keychain on their phones. It seems to be an inside joke. They both stop that job after Henry gets shot in the leg. The bullet completely demolishes his knee and he now walks around with a prothesis in his restaurant where Finch helps out as well.

Crutchie becomes a therapist for disabled children. He knows, intimately so, how hurt they've been by parents, other kids and plain dumb ignorance. He takes joy in bringing joy to those kids and helps them realise their own worth. He would fight for every child that enters his office and has done so more than once. People tend to underestimate him, always, but Crutchie was appointed 'Kindest Kid' and 'Best Wrestler' in high school and he carries those titles with pride.

Les and Sarah now have to endure eye-puns, made by David Jacobs himself. "You didn't become an English mayor for this", Sarah deadpans as David smugy answers. "You didn't know what eye did it for my dearest sister." Putting Kid Blink and David in one room has become annoying, because there is no end to eye related puns. David also keeps getting vine sunglasses, but the original team has upped their game, because at one side it's printed in abhorrent glitter and at the other side in Braille.

These last few years Bryan has also been getting significantly greyer hair and also a lot of back pain. Being human is suffering apparently, but as he hears David, Sarah and Les heatedly arguing about which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle is the best, he can't help but smile. There are good things about it too. "It's Mikey!" He hears David scream from a distance. "You fuckers don't appreciate kindness enough!" Sarah scoffs in return. "If you had even a little bit of Leo's calmness, you'd know who's the best." Les chimes in with a "I think Raph is cool."

All those silly young people underestimate the real mpv, Donny of course. Hannah joins him at the garden table. She's been getting greyer as well, but it's her choice, not her nature. "You know", she mentions casually. "You could start all the fun human stuff too. Get yourself a man or a woman or some other kind of lover, you never know when you could drop dead. I mean, your years are limited now, make something fun of 'em."

He mulls it over for about two seconds and grins. "No thanks, I'mma pass upon that in this lifetime. I'd rather spend my days with my best friend. If she's willing and isn't too busy, of course." There's a rare moment of honesty between them, shared in smiles of people that know each other since forever. Then she cuffs him on the head. "She's willing shithead, only because you make a nice strawberry shortcake. That's it."

Twenty eight year old David Jacobs walks through his shared apartment with his best friend in search of said best friend. It's a Sunday, one that's bound to be nice and he feels like going out. "Jackie are you decent? Wouldn't want to hurt my eyes", he says giggling as he peaks his head around the corner of Jack's bedroom. There's a lot of shuffling noise until Jack pulls him in the bed and traps him in a bear hug. "No", he simply says and buries his face in David's chest. "I was up till four this morning, I'm not coming out. Also your jokes suck."

"It seems like we don't see eye to eye", David whispers and Jack hits with a pillow. "Stop. That's illegal."

"Staying in bed for this long is illegal", David shoots back as he pushes Jack out of his bed. "I wanna go out-out today", he says as he exits Jack's bedroom. Sleepily, Jack rearranges his blankets. "Sounds like a date", he yawns. "Wait, is it one?" he asks, way more awake now. David hums in return. "Depends. Are you coming or not?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am a little bit emotional because this is the longest thing I've ever written holy shiiit. If you ever commented on this story, I want you to know that I read it and also probably almost cried even if it was just a ':(' . Thank y'all readers so damn much, damn much! By the way, I'm gonna start another long newsies fic after I work through my requests and some spromeo oneshots. It's gonna be a dark nitty gritty fantasy au. If you want to know more about it or just about my works in general (or want to request me some hc's or a little drabble), you can always shoot me an ask on tumblr, where i am rivertellsstories. Once again, thanks you guys!!!

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me if there are any mistakes or if I left words out. It happens a lot and I am too lazy to edit :/ feel free to hit me up on tumblr! I’m rivertellsstories over there.


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